I have a wonderful question. Do our votes even count? I thought that all of the votes that were counted, the votes that actually matter, came from the electoral college. In case you do not know what the electoral college is it is someone that casts the vote for us. All of the states have a different number of electoral voters. The voters are based on population. So, basically, the votes are comeing from the govornment, and not us. At least, that is my take on the whole voting issue. It is just a scheme becuase govornment is controling govornment and by letting us vote, they are making us believe that we are the ones that have the control. But we are not. So, if we are made to believe that we have control of the executive branch then is that not lying. It is nothing new of course but, it makes one wonder, what else is being hidden? The govornment could be hiding aliens and weapons of mass distruction. Wow, it scares me a little. What is the govornment hiding. Also, why would I vote anyways. There is no one worth voting for. No one has my beliefs. McCain is too old. Obama is too young. And Hillary, she is just a joke. This is what I think of them. If you think differently then that is your God given right. Anyways, these are just some thoughts.
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Yes, the electoral college is ridiculous. It is an outdated system that was originally intended to protect the government from uneducated individuals making vital decisions. Each state does ultimately hand out the electoral college votes, and that appears to be the final determinate of who gets elected.
However, your vote does count. You might want to do your own research on your state's laws, but I know in my state (Michigan), the electoral college votes, by law, have to go to the winner of the popular vote. This takes the edge off of the electoral college slightly.
Trust me on this, your voice, your vote, although it may seem small, does make a difference. This is where campaigning and raising awareness for the things you believe in make an even bigger difference.
If more people just voted instead of bitching about the highly outdated, unfair practice of the electoral college, we might not be in a war right now.
-Sonja :)
"Democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."
Yeah, I heard/ read the same thing online or in gov. class or something. k. moore is right. Some states have very distinct voting laws in which they decide the number of electors either based on the popular vote or in statewide elections from the previous year. For example, let's say Statesatonia has 15 electoral votes, so only 15 electors sitting at a table get to cast votes. Well let's say the Republican candidate wins 80% of the pop. vote, while the Democratic candidate wins the other 20%. Then the Rep. gets 12 out of 15 electoral votes. In this case, Statesatonia is a state that divides their electoral votes based on percentage.
However, lets say we have this state called Floridinia, and it has 25 electoral votes. The Republican candidate wins 67%, while the Dem. wins 30%, and the Independent steals a measly 3%. However, rather than proportion it, Floridinia awards all 25 electoral votes to the Republican simply because he/ she won majority votes (50%+1). The Dems. lose out even though they put up a hell of a fight in this state. So this state, Floridinia, splits votes based on majority winner takes all. I think some of the bigger, "red" US states use this method: Texas, Florida, Colorado?
I am almost certain that states like Nebraska, California, and Ohio use the proportion system, but I could be wrong. I know California, because I think in the last election, Kerry and Bush split some votes in Cali, but because Kerry took a higher percent of popular votes and more regions, he "won" Cali, by getting more of the 45-50 electoral votes of Cali. I almost remember him taking like 30 or 29 or something like that. I hope my information is helpful to you. Oh yeah, do a search for electoral college rules online at google or cnn or something (I printed out an article that talked about the electoral debacle of the last two elections, 2000 and 2004, from some website) It also described in detail some of the electoral rules.