Questions Requiring Intelligent Answers

[queenbee]

A sensible reply PLEASE;

On the paper ballots they use to have a write-in category, where you could vote for someone not on the ballot.

The electronic machines, of course, do not allow this.

How would you go about doing that? Not that I have a write in, just curious.

Also, when you vote absentee is it electronic or paper?

[queenbee]

An electoral college is a set of electors, who are empowered as a deliberative body to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these electors represent a different organization or entity with each organization or entity by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way. Many times, though, the electors are simply important persons whose wisdom, it is hoped, would provide a better choice than a larger body. The system can ignore the wishes of a general membership whose thinking may not be considered. When applied on a national scale, such as the election of a country's leader, the popular vote can on occasion run counter to the electoral college's vote, and for this reason there are some who feel that the system is a distortion of true democracy in a democratic society.

[queenbee]

If an electoral college determines who should be President, then why vote at all?

Your vote wouldn't count anyways.

[bubbadebubba]

queenbee said:

A sensible reply PLEASE;

On the paper ballots they use to have a write-in category, where you could vote for someone not on the ballot.

The electronic machines, of course, do not allow this.

How would you go about doing that? Not that I have a write in, just curious.

Also, when you vote absentee is it electronic or paper?

This refers to absentee ballots.
It's a paper ballot that is fed into a machine that reads your vote. If the machine rejects it for any reason such as multiple checked choices or erasures or torn corners or defaced in any way or a write in is put on the ballot. When the machine kicks out the ballot, a voter review panel looks over the ballot and makes a decision on the INTENT of the voter. If the intent of the voter can be discerned, the vote is counted. If the intent cannot be discerned, the ballot is dis-carded.

[bubbadebubba]

queenbee said:

An electoral college is a set of electors, who are empowered as a deliberative body to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these electors represent a different organization or entity with each organization or entity by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way. Many times, though, the electors are simply important persons whose wisdom, it is hoped, would provide a better choice than a larger body. The system can ignore the wishes of a general membership whose thinking may not be considered. When applied on a national scale, such as the election of a country's leader, the popular vote can on occasion run counter to the electoral college's vote, and for this reason there are some who feel that the system is a distortion of true democracy in a democratic society.

The electoral college is made up of dedicated Republicans or Democrats within each State who are bound to vote for the candidate of their party who receives the most votes. The number of Electors by each State are set according to the population of the State, hence bigger States have more Electors and vice-versa.

Our country is a Republic, not a Democracy. There is a difference.

[queenbee]

Thank you Bubba I appreciate the input.

I posted the paper ballot question on the other site and here is the reply I received from admin over there.

quote:
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On the paper ballots they use to have a write-in category, where you could vote for someone not on the ballot.

The electronic machines, of course, do not allow this.


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Actually, they do. From the Secretary of State's website: "Just as with older systems, the new electronic voting units allow voters to cast votes for write in candidates.

To vote for a write-in candidate, under the appropriate race touch the box marked Write In. A keyboard is then displayed on the screen. Simply type in the name of the candidate. When you are done, touch the box marked Record Write In. Your choice will then appear under the race.

Voters should note, however, that, under Georgia law, write in votes are only counted and compiled for those candidates who have filed an official notice of their write in candidacy."


quote:
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when you vote absentee is it electronic or paper?
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Paper

[bubbadebubba]

queenbee said:

If an electoral college determines who should be President, then why vote at all?

Your vote wouldn't count anyways.

All votes count. Say if one Candidate receives 101 votes and the other Candidate receives 100. Since the State's total Electoral votes go to the Candidate who gets the 101 votes, the Electors are bound to vote the person who receives 101 votes. Of course using the numbers I quoted would bring about a re-count. But voting this way is no different than voting directly for a Candidate. The Electoral college vote applies only to the Election of a President.

There have been only 2 elections in history where the losing Presidential Candidate received the most votes. The first was Kennedy/Nixon. Nixon got the popular vote, Kennedy got the electoral vote. The other was the Bush/Gore election. Gore got the popular vote, Bush got the electoral vote.

The reason this occurs is due to the difference of State populations and the electoral college of each State.

[queenbee]

Does anyone find it odd that they still use the red state/blue state/purple state system?

When I met my huband he asked me which party I voted for, he said that he always votes straight Democrat. I explained to him that I voted for whom I thought was the best candidate based on their politics. After 17 years I am proud to say he now pay's attention to the political process.

There is hope for the party voters.

[queenbee]

"There have been only 2 elections in history where the losing Presidential Candidate received the most votes."

I promise I am not trying to be dumb, but if the most votes is suppose to win, then why did they put Kennedy and then Bush in office?

What pushed them one way or the other to determine this? Is this Electoral college made up of equal amounts of party members?

Maybe you can just direct me to a web site that explain's it, it would probably be easier.

I am sure that this was covered in my history class 27 years ago, of course then it didn't seem important to me.

[someperson]

Try this site, Ms. Bee: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College

This might help also:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College#Losing_the_popular_vote

[bubbadebubba]

queenbee said:

"There have been only 2 elections in history where the losing Presidential Candidate received the most votes."

I promise I am not trying to be dumb, but if the most votes is suppose to win, then why did they put Kennedy and then Bush in office?

What pushed them one way or the other to determine this? Is this Electoral college made up of equal amounts of party members?

Maybe you can just direct me to a web site that explain's it, it would probably be easier.

I am sure that this was covered in my history class 27 years ago, of course then it didn't seem important to me.

The most electoral votes win, not popular votes. And generally, and most all times, the popular and the electoral votes show the same Candidate winning with the exception of the 2 that I mentioned. The number of electors from each State is determined by the population, i.e. voters. There may be more people vote in Ohio with say 20 electoral votes than vote in Michigan with say 35 electoral votes. Not all voters vote in each State so a State with more electoral votes may have less voters voting and can cause the difference like we saw for the Kennedy/Nixon and the Bush/Gore vote.

Being that we live in a Republic and not a Democracy, The Electoral college which is made up of Electors from each State; if the State goes democratic, then the electors are democratic, and the same goes for the republicans.
When a Candidate gets the popular vote in a State, that State's Electoral votes (which is made up by the party that wins the State election) are then pledged to that Candidate. The Candidate with the most electoral votes becomes President.
The electoral votes are counted in congress and the Candidate with the most votes is named President.

This is why most Candidates spend a lot of time in the bigger States. there are more electoral votes there. In reality a Candidate can win fewer States with larger Electoral votes and become President.


Our founding fathers came up with this system and it has served us well.

[queenbee]

Maybe so, but it is rather confusing.

Thanks again for your time on this. Who knows maybe someone else will have gleaned some knowledge from your reply as well.

[someperson]

Actually, according to Wiki, there were four elections where popular vote and electroal vote were different.
"In the elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000, the candidate receiving an aggregate plurality of the popular vote did not become president (although, in 1824, not every state held a popular election, so the true popular vote is uncertain; in those six states, the legislatures appointed the electors). With no candidate having received a majority of electoral votes in 1824, the election was decided by the House of Representatives, and is thus distinct from the latter three elections in which a single candidate won in fact by an Electoral College majority."

[bubbadebubba]

I'm posting this in hopes people will educate themselves about our Country.
We live under a Republic form of government. It was formed as a Republic and not as a Democracy. Our founding fathers would be turning over in their graves if they knew what we doing, as Ron Paul says.

There has been a misconception ever since the Democratic party was formed, hence why we have today the Republican and Democratic parties named as such. I agree that both parties have morphed into something that would not resemble the original parties.

I encourage everyone to become involved in our Country and not leave it to a few, for a Country stands or falls upon the involvement of the people and it starts at the county level.

[bubbadebubba]

u r welcome Bee.
and I stand corrected-thanks someperson and also thanks for the links, I have been informed myself.