Does your vote REALLY count?

After years of studying and working in the government I've finally started to realize that in the grand scheme of the upcoming elections...our vote really doesn't count.

We say this is a democracy, and while that may be true for local and state elections, in the national elections, an electoral college votes for us.

We fight for freedom for people in other country to vote, but what about our own?

A question I always ask people is...do you know anyone..ANYONE who is a member of the electoral college? I know I don't and I worked in local, state, and national politics for years.

Did you know that they can vote any way that they like?

Did you know that several times in history the popular vote has gone against the electoral votes... For example:

* In 1824, Andrew Jackson won the most popular votes (at least in states where popular elections were held), but no candidate won a majority of the electoral votes. The House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams as president. (Jackson won the election four years later.)

* In 1876, Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden narrowly won the popular vote over Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, but twenty contested electoral votes prevented either man from winning a majority of electors. In a compromise that ended the federal occupation of the South that had begun after the Civil War, Congress certified all twenty contested votes as having been cast for Hayes.

* In 1888, Republican Benjamin Harrison easily won a majority of the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote to his opponent, Democrat Grover Cleveland. Cleveland's support was largely regional: he won large majorities in several southern states, which raised his popular vote totals but won him few electoral votes. Harrison won narrow majorities in most other states, however, and won the electoral vote 233 to 168.

* And in 2000, Democrat Al Gore won a narrow plurality of the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to Republican George W. Bush, 271 to 266. The vote was so close that Gore, thinking he had lost, conceded, then retracted his concession as more votes were counted. Because the vote in Florida, a decisive state, was so close, multiple recounts were held, and the Supreme Court had to settle a lawsuit over whether recounts should continue.


Just wanted to stir the pot and see what people here think...I saw another post about possibly eliminating the electoral college and I'm all for it. Check it out.

For further reading on this topic in general I found this link.

Whats everyone's take on this?

Depends on what state you live in as to whether your electoral college has to vote for the candidate with the most votes
source

I believe that my vote counts, but to whom is the real question. Yesterday, they opened up early voting and in my neck of the woods the polling place has been swamped. Today while having lunch at a local establishment I basically watched a CNN talking head bring out his high tech Red/Blue map of the United States and basically tell everone that Barak Obama already has enough electoral votes to win the election.

So yes, I'll vote and I'll vote on election day like I always do. However, my vote will only count to me.

What a great disservice the MSM is perpetrating on the American people. I wouldn't be surprised if for the next two weeks we will have early voting counts, fradulent polls, predicitions and election calls before most of us have the chance to exercise our civic duties.

Such is the sad state things in the greatest country in the world. No offence, I should say IMHO.

Yes at least here in Florida. Had only 6-700 people voted in 2000 it could have swayed the results.

We elect the people that do the real voting for president. Sure, they are supposed to listen to us, but they don't necessarily have to.

We need to revamp things anyways, it sickens me that 51% of the people can control the other 49%.

We are a republic and should all be free to do what we want as long as it doesn't hurt others. We are a REPUBLIC and the democracy that we seem to think we should be is so corrupt it's sad.

The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President of the United States.[1] In 2008, it will make this selection on December 15. The Electoral College is an example of an indirect election.

Each elector casts one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. In order to be elected, a candidate must have a majority (at least 270) of the electoral votes cast for that office. Should no candidate for President win a majority of the electoral votes, the choice is referred to the House of Representatives.[5] Should no candidate for Vice President possess a majority of the electoral votes, the choice is given to the Senate.[6]

Candidates can fail to get the most votes in the nationwide popular vote in a presidential election and still win that election. This occurred in 1876, 1888 and 2000.

wiki/U.S._Electoral_College

They say "too bad sucka!"

[edit on 21-10-2008 by Lucid Lunacy]