The right to vote

Whenever a young person in our family, or a friend of the family, turns 18 I give them a voter registration form.

I tell them I don't care who they vote for, just so they study the issues and vote. And I check up on them to get their input on various candidates and issues. 

I also tell them to NOT put their phone number on the form. I did a lot of research on that matter and found out that's how you get calls from people urging you to vote for so and so. The politicians are allowed to use those numbers and give them to whoever they want to.

I am a Vet Nam veteran and have always voted. I however never voted early. i am not a believer in early voting. If I had to vote absentee ballot like some here have stated I would wait until election day to make up my mind. Some voted in the primary and just before the election the guy they voted for dropped out so they lost there chance. Not the same for the general but still important to vote just the same.

Welcome to America Tom. So nice to have you in our country

I disagree Tom
as a resident of CA (and a Vietnam vet),  our current Electoral college system awards all 55 delegates to the simple majority winner....

so,  there is a guaranteed mathematical disenfranchisement factor of 49% .......thus...it's a waste of time for me to even go down and vote..   

I don't really understand the rationale behind your electoral college.

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As Dave54 explained, the Electoral College stems from the US being a union of 50 states rather than one amorphous country. It is designed to help balance the power of heavily populated rural states vs smaller or more rural states. Basically the EC assures that every state gets at least 3 votes for choosing a President and VP, but more populous states get more votes. Our Congressional elections work essentially the same way, balancing the power among states large & small, populous or rural.

The UK system actually does much the same. It is NOT a direct election.  Each Parliamentary district elects its Member of Parliament (MP), and the MP then chooses who he/she will support for Prime Minister. The district differ in size and population, but each gets one MP and thus one vote for a PM. It's even possible to change the PM without a new general election (this just happened).

The basic difference between the UK system and the US Electoral College is that the "Electors" in the College are elected only for the purpose of choosing a new President. They are not necessarily the serving Congress member and they have no other role once the new President is chosen.

Note that the Electoral College has no rules as to how a state chooses its Electors. That is one of hallowed our "State's Rights", stemming from the nature of the Union. Some states do "winner take all", while others apportion based on the popular vote. And most all of them give the Elector some degree of independent choice, especially if a President is not chosen on the first ballot. Again, much like the UK system where the MPs may change positions or form coalitions.

Gary.

I live in California,
I can tell you without any doubt which party all 55 state delegates will go to in this election....and the next election....and the next election......

TonyDtorch said:

Gary.

this is California,
I can tell you without any doubt which party all 55 state delegates will be voting for this election....and the next election....and the next election......

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And how many people not of the ruling party feel that way? Maybe if they all exercised their right to vote instead of crying "it's no use" then maybe things would change. It's not going to change unless they do.
It would be an awesome thing if every eligible voter in this country would exercise their right to vote.

Being a resident of Texas, I'm in the same position - proportional award would be an improvement!

Ernie

kdbgoat said:

And how many people not of the ruling party feel that way? Maybe if they all exercised their right to vote instead of crying "it's no use" then maybe things would change. It's not going to change unless they do.
It would be an awesome thing if every eligible voter in this country would exercise their right to vote.

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yes it would be awesome if everything changed .....and it would also be awesome if I could hit the next super-lotto.

I live in California,
I can tell you without any doubt which party all 55 state delegates will go to in this election....and the next election....and the next election.....

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You may be surprised to know that is only a relatively recent trend. From 1952 to 1988 (except for 1964), California was a solid republican state and Dems complained it was unfair.  Now the shoe is on the other foot.  Each political party has had a turn at dominating your state legislature and both have declined to change from winner take all to proportional. They both like the fact that they can get all the Electoral votes with just 51% of the voters.

Gary RV Roamer said:

You may be surprised to know that is only a relatively recent trend. From 1952 to 1988 (except for 1964), California was a solid republican state and Dems complained it was unfair.  Now the shoe is on the other foot.  Each political party has had a turn at dominating your state legislature and both have declined to change from winner take all to proportional. They both like the fact that they can get all the Electoral votes with just 51% of the voters.

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the obvious trend of voters in California would make the odds of a political swing any time soon very unlikely.

This year on the senatorial ticket we have a choice of a Democrat or a Democrat. 

for unknown reasons,  it appears that many republicans have "jumped ship" 

Welcome to America Tom. So nice to have you in our country

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Thanks. After living 36 years here, and visiting during the prior 10 years, we feel quite welcome. My one regret is not having had the opportunity to serve.

Thank you for your service.

utahclaimjumper said:

I particularly don't like the electoral colledge because its made up of "professional politicians" which we could do nicely without.>>>D

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I suppose you would be happy if we didnt have professional pilots flying airplanes, as well. 

Driving down our street a couple of days ago, I was surprised, almost startled, to see signs in neighbors' yards to "Vote for xxxx". This happens to be a friend/acquaintance we've known for many years. We've never discussed politics or shared political opinions/positions, and I had to stop and read the small print on the sign; It read "... for yyyy school board".

Knowing that the lady retired from a career in school teaching, the sign now made sense. Also, knowing the individual and her characteristics, I can imagine the contribution she'll make to the school board, and she'll get my vote.

It is 'first past the post'...

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Reminds me of the days I was unhappy with the UK electoral system; I used to tell people that local towns/villages "originally" sent their representative a couple of hundred miles to London on horseback (or mule)  ;D

    At first I thought this was a string about our local municipal elections which take place this coming Saturday, but I see that it is about some kind of election going on down there next month. 
    The discussion reminds me of discussions I used to have with my maternal grandfather.  He left Russia circa 1905 after being drafted and posted to the Japanese front.  He said that was a war that he strongly disagreed with, so he walked, stole rides on carts and otherwise sneaked his way about 500 miles to the nearest border, where he caught a train to the coast to come to Canada.  He said that by exercising his vote, he was making sure that no one would ever have the ability to start a war about a couple of virtually uninhabited islands.
    Oh by the way Roy, your post brought back Winston Churchill's comment the "Democracy is the worst system, except for all others"

Ed

Tom said:

Reminds me of the days I was unhappy with the UK electoral system; I used to tell people that local towns/villages "originally" sent their representative a couple of hundred miles to London on horseback (or mule)  ;D

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Tom, are you aware of the recent turmoil going on in local city counsels around London ?  Pubs appear to be being voted out of business.

Tom, are you aware of the turmoil going on in city counsels near London ?

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To some extent; I listen to BBC News and BBC podcasts nightly.

How did the representative on horseback know if he was getting closer to, or further away from, London? I took the attached picture of a real milestone preserved at the side of the highway on the way out of a local town. If the number went down, the rider was getting closer but, if it went up, he was going in the wrong direction  ;D

In the UK, the choice of Prime Minister is independent of a general election; The leader of a political party is presumed to be PM if that party wins the election. He/she could have been leader of their respective party for years before an election. But the appointment of PM is 'officially' done by the Queen when she summonses the party leader to the palace and asks him or her to form a government.

The UK parliamentary system does not have the equivalent of our 3 branches of government and associated checks and balances. Whilst the Queen announces an agenda for the upcoming year's parliament (in her annual speech to the nation), she does not have veto power over any legislation. Meanwhile, every cabinet position is matched by a 'shadow cabinet' position; The shadow cabinet has no veto rights per se, but each member/position becomes the opposing party's "expert" on the subject area, and will/can argue with knowledge.

At least, that's how it used to work; Things might have changed since we lived there  ???

dave54, you brought up a real problem with our parliamentary system. The number of seats are allocated roughly according to population meaning south western Quebec and southern Ontario have most of the clout. By the time Ontario polls close, the election has already been decided, the western vote only determines how much of a majority the winning party enjoys.
Your system of electing the leader separate from the representatives certainly has merit, in my opinion ours gives too much power to too few people and it gets abused but yours can lead to paralysis as has happened. There is no perfect answer.

and the same thing for CA, the winner is announced early in the day, long before noon, polls close at 5pm but because the "exit polls" always say there ain't a chance in hell,  so these 55 E/C votes are just automatically counted for the Democratic candidate... the easy winner is predicted in the news and so it is.

why even bother to vote.