The Electoral College

I still have not voted as yet...I am still undecided. As I was sitting at my desk reading the voters pamphlet about other issues...(of course) my mind always returns to...my vote for the President.

I got to thinking about the (electoral college) votes and if my vote will really count. So I decided to do some research and re-educate myself on the electoral college voting process.

"...In nearly all states, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis to the candidate who wins the most votes in that state. Although electors are not required by federal law to honor a pledge, in the overwhelming majority of cases they vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged..." (from Wikipedia)

Link explaining the (electoral college) en.wikipedia.org...

So as I understand it...the electors in each state are supposed to vote for the candidate that got the most votes from us (we the people)...but they don't have to...they can vote for the other candidate if they so choose.

Now I am sitting here thinking that my vote may not count at all...because maybe the electors in each state have already been instructed as to who should win.

What do you all think?

reply to post by caladonea


First of all, let me say that I don't care who you do or do not support. How you feel about war, taxes, abortion is of no consequence to me. So take this as a discussion purely on the electoral college...

Your vote counts for very little...as it should.

To begin, even if we had a popular vote system, your vote wouldn't count for that much anyway. Your odds of effecting anything in a system like that would be higher than in the current system, but by such a slight margin, who cares?

Basically when we get right down to it, your vote doesn't matter in any case because of math. Not despotism, just math.

But I don't want anyone's vote mattering all that much anyway. Voting is not an American invention nor is democracy. No, our founders rejected those things on principle. The genius of America is federalism and constitutional republicanism.

My freedom, and yours as individuals is advanced more by the people around us having less voting power to affect our lives.

reply to post by snusfanatic


Wouldn't care to explain your thoughts on that would you? I would think that yes one vote doens't count for a whole lot ,but combined with all the others it becomes the will of the people.Therefore the people get to have they're say.Which is what people want to have anyway since they have to live under the rules.

And when my son ( CKBURNS on here ) brought that up in his civics class last week, he was asked to leave class and given detention for being disruptive! You gotta love how they won't teach the whole story now adays.

reply to post by Dimithae


I'm happy to answer questions, and I'll try to answer briefly (busy), but please, I am very open to answering your questions if you want further clarifications (seriously)....

The will of the people is the point of voting. I agree with that. But the will of the people cannot be supreme. The will of the individual to control their own lives should take precedent. So, we need to water down the will of the people so that their power to vote has minimal effect on people's lives.

Obviously the vast majority (no matter what their lifestyle) would agree with traffic laws, for instance. But less democracy would mean more drug legalization for instance, less legally created discrimination, less war. This is assuming that the alternative to democracy is constitutional republicanism, not dictatorship. Dictatorship could, obviously lead to more oppression.

reply to post by snusfanatic


WOW man did you miss your meds today? Shes asking ( caladonea correct me if I'm wrong) if its already been decide behind the scenes reguardless of her vote. Not wether voting or democracy is american or if she should be allowed to vote.

There is a very small, highly organized, (materially) super-rich, ultra-secret group of extremely rich people who are secretly running the entire world from behind the scenes. Governments, policy think-tanks, media, educational organizations and foundations, are all just among the visible part of their structure that they allow you to see.

One key to defeating your enemy is KNOWING your enemy better than he knows you.

reply to post by snusfanatic


Regarding the electoral college vote...I would like to think that my vote does count...but now I am thinking that I will never know if it does or does not because the electors in my state may very well vote against the way (we the people) voted.

reply to post by caladonea


A faithless elector has never changed an election. I'm talking more broadly about the electoral college/meaning of a vote. But if you're worried the majority of people in your state will vote for Obama and the electors will randomly give the votes to Romney? Not gonna happen.

reply to post by iwontrun


Yea, when I miss my psych med's I tend to produce coherent yet off topic posts on republicanism. DAMN THIS ILLNESS!

reply to post by caladonea


Cal you are correct your vote only matters to you, I believe three presidents have been elected against popular vote, Bush Jr being the most recent. Think of voting as choice therapy.

Originally posted by iwontrun
And when my son ( CKBURNS on here ) brought that up in his civics class last week, he was asked to leave class and given detention for being disruptive! You gotta love how they won't teach the whole story now adays.

I am glad your son spoke up...it got the rest of the class to think about what is really going on...and they may investigate further.

I wonder why the teacher was so cruel to him. I guess (he or she) just couldn't handle the truth.

reply to post by snusfanatic


I was thinking more along the lines of somewhat in the vicinity of topic , yet completely in coherent gibberish !

Originally posted by iwontrun
reply to post by snusfanatic

 

WOW man did you miss your meds today? Shes asking ( caladonea correct me if I'm wrong) if its already been decide behind the scenes reguardless of her vote. Not wether voting or democracy is american or if she should be allowed to vote.

No...you are not wrong...that is what I am saying....

reply to post by iwontrun


Well in that case, you're not reading enough. I probably went off topic by not addressing the conspiracy. But there's nothing incoherent about the idea that someone's vote should not matter.

I live in a "blue" state. If I decide to cast my vote for the "other" guy my vote is essentially wasted because I don't live in a swing state. Never have I felt so ineffectual to change an outcome. Now correct me if I'm wrong but my vote only counts towards how many Electoral votes my State gets next time around . Or is that decided by the Census?

reply to post by caladonea

Maybe but it also taught the that to question = punishment. A couple of weeks ago he got in trouble for asking what was an acceptable amount of collateral damage in a retaliatory strike I also got called to the office for that.
pretty smart for a kid!

reply to post by Ruralguy


Decided by number the number in the house of reps.

Have any of you ever met a electoral? I have met many people in my life, judges, Lawyers, Doctors, celebs, etc. Congressmen, mayors, etc.

never an Electoral... Wonder what kinda College degree I need...


ahem...

Just saying..

I gave up on the system in 2000, when Gore, won the Popular vote, was given FLA, and Bush, demanded a recount, the chad fiasco, then a supreme court ruling, yet all in all Gore had thousands more votes by the people...



then September 11th happened...

Would it have happened the same way with Gore?



would love to have seen that alternative universe...

Originally posted by Ruralguy
I live in a "blue" state. If I decide to cast my vote for the "other" guy my vote is essentially wasted because I don't live in a swing state. Never have I felt so ineffectual to change an outcome. Now correct me if I'm wrong but my vote only counts towards how many Electoral votes my State gets next time around . Or is that decided by the Census?

As I understand it....lets say that (Ron Paul) got the most votes with (write-in votes) by we the people; then the chosen electors in that state are supposed to cast their votes for (Ron Paul)...but legally they don't have to...they can vote for the other guy.