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Topic: 'The Nightmare'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7626471.stm

Not going to quote the whole article here, but it's worth the few minutes it takes to read.

"If you mix and match states on the map, in fact, you will quickly see that it relatively easy to produce a tie in the electoral college. So what happens if one occurs? In two words: a mess."

"This is called "the unit rule". The founding fathers centred the idea on the fact that the nation was a confederation of states rather than a pure democracy of individual voters. Just as the electoral college is state-based, the House selection of the president in the case of deadlock revolves around the states.

The unit rule has been employed twice in US history, in the long-ago elections of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson emerged as president, and 1824, when John Quincy Adams was elected."

"Think about what House selection of a president would mean today. Gargantuan California would have the same single House vote in choosing the new president as sparsely populated Wyoming, even though California has about 70 times its population. The votes of the mega-states of Florida, New York, and Texas could be cancelled out by the tiny populations of Montana, Rhode Island, and South Dakota."

"If the public reaction to the Supreme Court's Bush v Gore decision in 2000 was bitter, one can scarcely imagine the outrage that would greet a modern application of the unit rule. By the way, well over 90% of the American people are unaware of this constitutional provision.

So if a 269-to-269 tie occurs, what is the likely outcome?"

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Would love to see this happen just to see how it plays out. The US preaches about it's righteous, god abiding democracy. But 90% of them don't even have a complete understanding of how the system works.

"In a world of global deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

That's the same for the people here...tough to our defense we have one of the most complex systems in the world.(Belgium)

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

lol, the elite won't allow it. America is a plutocracy, and as long as people thing it's a democracy they reign supreme.

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

In 2000, the Federal Govt., specifically the Judiciary (the Supreme Court) overstepped its constitutional power.  The Court should have never heard the case of Bush V. Gore.  If not for he Judiciary of Florida overstepping the Constitution of Florida.....but that is another case.

The Constitution is written to cover this issue.

1.  Each state based on population is alloted Electoral votes in the general election.  The Majority winner gets ALL the electoral college votes.
>>>  Now, this can be contested as wrong.  But, of course it wont be.  The election system has been working.

2.  As stated, in a tie, its done the same way in the House, except each state gets 1 vote, from the majority of representatives voting.
As you may notice, its not done in the Senate.  Because the VP has input, and representation is most mirrored in the House.


I think this is a good system.

As well, it will NOT be altered, no matter how many trips to the court.

Come .......joust w/the master.
I'm always Right.   You are just intellectually Left.....behind.
Individual patriot, and a REAGAN Conservative.

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

I don't think its possible for any forseeable amount of time, that tie happened when we had fewer than 20 states.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/

if you look back at the last twenty years of elections
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1996
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1992
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1988

Notice how much of the map is static.  The big shift is the growth of CA to 55 electoral votes and it's SOLID Democrat tilt.   Since McCain seems locked to getting a solid south and west apart from the pacific coast, it's gonna hinge on Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida.  Whoever gets two of those three probably will clinch it.

If it DID happen I think the House would elect the popular winner.

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

The system still seems (for lack of a better term) wonky. I mean, take California for example. If I understand it right as along as 50% +1 vote Democrat, the Democrats get 55 votes. But what the if majority of people of people in northern Cal. vote Republican, but due to an increased population in southern cities voting Democrat, the large percentage of voters in northern Cal. are not being heard represented when they go to vote.

Not to start trolling here, but the Canadian System seems more democratic in the sense that every each vote carries more weight. They way we have the country divided into 308 (might be larger) sections of roughly equal populations gives more insight into who is really voting for who. Example: in my home province, we only have 7 districts that represent us at a national level. Yet, in the most recent election, 3 of the most urban areas -shamefully- voted Conservative, will the 4 rural districts voted Liberal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_Canadian_federal_election,_2006:_Quebec_and_Atlantic_Canada#Newfoundland_and_Labrador)

The point I'm trying to get across here is that large minorities get represented in this system, more so than it seems in the American system.

"In a world of global deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

It'd be like watching penalties in soccer (football.) I just hope the commercials would not be too long on time.

I am all-in on electrics.

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Re: 'The Nightmare'

>>The system still seems (for lack of a better term) wonky. I mean, take California for example. If I understand it right as along as 50% +1 vote Democrat, the Democrats get 55 votes. But what the if majority of people of people in northern Cal. vote Republican, but due to an increased population in southern cities voting Democrat, the large percentage of voters in northern Cal. are not being heard represented when they go to vote.

Not to start trolling here, but the Canadian System seems more democratic in the sense that every each vote carries more weight. They way we have the country divided into 308 (might be larger) sections of roughly equal populations gives more insight into who is really voting for who. Example: in my home province, we only have 7 districts that represent us at a national level. Yet, in the most recent election, 3 of the most urban areas -shamefully- voted Conservative, will the 4 rural districts voted Liberal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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