Tuesday, September 25, 2007

No your vote doesn't count

Do you know how the president of the United States gets elected? We all think our vote counts, and it does, but not nearly as you might think.
In 2000 Al Gore actually received more votes total than George Bush, but thanks to the system established by the Constitution, George Bush won the election. It has happened before, and changes have been made because of it. I think that the only changes that need to be made are education of the people, and then the states who actually send the electors in the electoral college can reflect the views of the people more accurately. I believe if all of the states used the "Maine method" than it would be more consistent with what the founding fathers anticipated.
When you cast your vote in the Presidential election, you are not voting for that person, but rather you are voting for representation in the electoral college. In every state except two, Maine and Nebraska, the popular vote of that state gains ALL of the electoral college votes for that state. In 2000, the Florida vote which was won by George Bush by only a few thousand votes actually gave him a swing of 54 out of 538 total votes in the electoral college. I think it is severly flawed, and the Constitution needs amended. All a candidate really needs to win now is to win California (55 votes), Texas (34), New York (31), Florida (27) Illinois (21), Pennsylvania (21), Ohio (20), Michigan (17), Georgia (15), New Jersey (15), and North Carolina (15), that ticket would have 271 votes, which would be enough to win, no matter what happens in the rest of the country. I believe that if all of the states were on the "Maine method" the conservative vote would have counted MORE, and George Bush would still have been elected. Here is a link that describes the system in detail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College

I believe that the President of the United States should be elected partly by the representatives in the legislatures of each individual state. Local elections would mean more, and the federal government would be more subject to state oversight. In other words, my local representative in my state congress would not only represent me in the state, but they would also represent me in the election of the President of the United States. Plus each congressional district could have one vote by majority. If it were possible to have a 25-25 tie, than the State govenors would be given a vote, and if there was another tie (almost impossible) then the congress could vote, then the senate, then the supreme court.

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