Originally posted by Silver Stardust
The electoral college, to be perfectly blunt, sucks ass. It really does make it so that if you don't live in a swing state, it doesn't matter if you vote or not. I live in Illinois, which is a given state -- it always goes Democratic. I voted for Kerry, but really it didn't matter if I did or not, he still would have won my state. And good luck if you want to vote Republican here..."As for the apparent unfairness of how many votes each State gets in the College... that certainly is an issue and I have never been able to work it out."
The EC is set up so each state has the same number of votes as they have seats in the House and Senate. There's 435 people in Congress, and 438 in the EC. Since each state has 2 Senators and at least 1 Rep, they have at least 3 votes in the EC, and DC also has three votes in the EC. But this is really kinda unfair to the larger states; as has been demonstrated in the 2000 election, a candidate can lose the popular vote and still win the election, because of the EC, by sweeping the smaller states. It's an old and outdated system that I think needs to be done away with.
Way to smack the shit out of that. 100% correct.
The EC blows chunks of ass and paper. It shouldn't exist anymore.
I've got no idea how they came to this conclusion. I think it was something along the lines that if they didn't do it this way, and it WAS purely proportional to population, the states with larger populations would completely dominate the states with smaller populations. But since the EC is set up the way it is, the exact opposite is true; states with smaller populations can totally dominate the states with larger populations.
"You know you don't live in a democracy?"
Youre absolutely right, for once. America is not a democracy. Its a Democratic Republic. Basically, we all get a say, but then our chosen representatives are supposed to act for our interests based on what we say.
The real problem is that most politicians (of ANY party) worry more about money and political correctness than serving the peoples interests like theyre supposed to.
I may be wrong Ush, but I don't think Electoral numbers are based solely on population but also how dense that population is and what the states economy and imports/exports are and all that.
For instance, Oregon and Washington might have similar populations, but Washington has Microsoft and Starbucks, so they get more Electorla votes because theyre providing more for the economy. Again, I could be completely wrong...
ARG my reply just got wiped out, so let's try this again.
I actually just looked up state populations and EC votes to compare, and I found very few instances of that. The biggest difference I spotted was between Illinois and Michigan -- Illinois has about 2.5 million more people and 4 more electoral votes. We actually used to have 22 votes instead of 21, but California stole on of them.
The funny thing about Illinois, is that the state nearly always goes Democratic; like I said, good luck voting here if you're a Republican. But in actuality, it's Chicago that makes the state Democratic. The further you get from Chicago, the more Republicans there are. So I live in a Democratic state that's really not. It's kinda weird.
Originally posted by Creechuur
For instance, Oregon and Washington might have similar populations, but Washington has Microsoft and Starbucks, so they get more Electorla votes because theyre providing more for the economy. Again, I could be completely wrong...
Actually, Washington has nearly twice the population of Oregon.
Originally posted by Silver Stardust
ARG my reply just got wiped out, so let's try this again.I actually just looked up state populations and EC votes to compare, and I found very few instances of that. The biggest difference I spotted was between Illinois and Michigan -- Illinois has about 2.5 million more people and 4 more electoral votes. We actually used to have 22 votes instead of 21, but California stole on of them.
The funny thing about Illinois, is that the state nearly always goes Democratic; like I said, good luck voting here if you're a Republican. But in actuality, it's Chicago that makes the state Democratic. The further you get from Chicago, the more Republicans there are. So I live in a Democratic state that's really not. It's kinda weird.
Oregon and Washington are like that.
Originally posted by GABRIEL05
Oregon and Washington are like that.
No, not really. Oregon has 3.something million people and 7 votes, while Washington has 6 million people and 11 votes.
(though I don't know what I posted that you're saying they're like that about...I'm assuming it's about population and EC votes)
Originally posted by Silver Stardust
No, not really. Oregon has 3.something million people and 7 votes, while Washington has 6 million people and 11 votes.(though I don't know what I posted that you're saying they're like that about...I'm assuming it's about population and EC votes)
No I meant as soon as you leave the seattle metro. area, it's all republicans
that was confusing though right?
It kinda scares me, though...how so few people in the US know anything about the government and how it works and politics...I mean, I don't know about other states, but in Illinois you can't graduate high school unless you take and pass government. They try to make sure that people are educated about this, and yet there's still so many people who are completely clueless.