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[A.Nonymous]

It works as it works anywhere else, 50% or a run off?
So? You are so afraid of fixing things yet never fail to complain about them.

Once again, you have a two-party system here. Either Romney or Obama will win 50% of the vote easily. One or the other will. Let's say neither one does. So you have a run off and the one that won the plurality the first time will win a majority the second time. What have you accomplished? You've voted twice and the same guy won both times, but he would've won the first time anyway. So what?

 

[jefboyardee]

ElasticNinja, I

 

[ElasticNinja]

Once again, you have a two-party system here. Either Romney or Obama will win 50% of the vote easily. One or the other will. Let's say neither one does. So you have a run off and the one that won the plurality the first time will win a majority the second time. What have you accomplished? You've voted twice and the same guy won both times, but he would've won the first time anyway. So what?

You can say the same about every run off in Presidential Elections. Thats not the point of them.

ElasticNinja, I

 

[copestag]

Enjoy your climate change and expensive healthcare, I guess.

this is hilarious....... considering there is nothing any president can do about climate change...... man made climate change has been 100% disproven...... even recently admitted by the brainiac alarmists at east anglia

and healthcare costs have already dramatically risen as a direct result of obamacare........ and are expected to as much as double in the next 10-15 years as a direct result

 

[Gmash]

this is hilarious....... considering there is nothing any president can do about climate change...... man made climate change has been 100% disproven...... even recently admitted by the brainiac alarmists at east anglia

and healthcare costs have already dramatically risen as a direct result of obamacare........ and are expected to as much as double in the next 10-15 years as a direct result

Wow...this scares the hell out of me that people actually believe this... again, just wow

 

[copestag]

I know..... its scary when facts get in the way of your narrative..... youll have to find some other way to fear monger

 

[Gmash]

Yeah, Democrats are the big fear mongers lol. I think someone is getting too many "facts" from Rush & Fox.

 

[A.Nonymous]

You can say the same about every run off in Presidential Elections. Thats not the point of them.

Guess I'm missing the point completely then. Electoral college is flawed. Two round voting changes nothing at all about our current system. Same two parties. Same two morons at the top. Only difference is they now campaign, not in states with a divided populace, but in states that are heavily populated instead.

 

[ElasticNinja]

this is hilarious....... considering there is nothing any president can do about climate change

Nothing? If they wanted to they could do so, so much.

man made climate change has been 100% disproven

By the Koch bros? If you have access to Google you shall find that the vast majority of climatologists and scientists in general agree that mankind is responsible for the climate change we are seeing.

even recently admitted by the brainiac alarmists at east anglia

Google returns nothing about a bunch of East Anglian scientists telling the world climate change is not actually happening?

and healthcare costs have already dramatically risen as a direct result of obamacare........ and are expected to as much as double in the next 10-15 years as a direct result

As a result of Americas lack of a healthcare system more like

Wow...this scares the hell out of me that people actually believe this... again, just wow

Apparently a large minority of his countrymen agree which is really quite sickening.

Guess I'm missing the point completely then. Electoral college is flawed.

Horribly flawed.

Two round voting changes nothing at all about our current system.

Yes it does. People vote for who they want as President in the first round, then for the lesser of two evils as it were in the second.

Only difference is they now campaign, not in states with a divided populace, but in states that are heavily populated instead.

They'll campaign anywhere they can get a decent amount of votes.

 

[Gmash]

The electoral college is stupid, but almost never picks against the winner of the popular vote anyway. I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but I think it's only happened once if I remember correctly.

 

[ElasticNinja]

The electoral college is stupid, but almost never picks against the winner of the popular vote anyway. I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but I think it's only happened once if I remember correctly.

I think its been four times.

Also, when you factor in the fact that many outside "swing states" don't bother to vote.

 

[Gmash]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/opinion/electoral-college-101.html

 

[thicks56]

almost no politician is perfect.

Even though its an old comment this made me laugh,
I'd very much like to meet this rare perfect politician!

Personally I know very little about american politics been from England,

In the last few years I haven't voted in our elections over here.
I understand what people are saying about find the politician that matches your views most and vote for him,

My question would be what if I don't have any faith in the system as a whole?
What if I believe that even if I vote for the person/people who's promises sound the best to me, when they actually get in to power most of them either do a complete U-turn or at the very least don't manage to get a single thing that they've promised done.

 

[lunatic59]

Let's keep it on topic and not take cheap shots when you don't agree with what someone else has said. Express yourself with enough passion to keep it interesting but enough restraint as if someone with the authority to do something about it was watching (because we are).

 

[A.Nonymous]

Problem with the electoral college is that candidates end up only campaigning in certain swing states. These states can differ from year to year, but not always. There are states that are solid red or solid blue and are never going to see a candidate no matter what happens.

While not a perfect system by a long shot I go back to my argument that I don't know of any that are better. If you use the direct popular vote then candidates will campaign in high populace areas that are divided. Rural Oregon will never see a candidate ever no matter how close it is there as there aren't enough votes to swing things one way or the other. So the same flaw with the electoral college will pop up only instead of Ohio you'll see candidates in California or New York or Chicago.

So do we do a two round system? Flawed again. While a great system when there are multiple parties there are only two parties here. Why vote for the same two guys twice in a row? Pointless. The only case in recent memory where it would've made a difference was in '92 when Perot ran. Perot and Bush together gathered more votes than Clinton, but Perot took enough votes from Bush that Clinton won. So in that case you would've had a run off with Bush and Clinton. It is doubtful that many Perot voters would've voted for Clinton. So you would've had a bunch of Perot voters who are likely either going to vote for Bush or stay home. If enough of them had voted for Bush, then he would've beat Clinton. Can you imagine the uproar you'd have in this country if Clinton had won the first round of voting by nearly 6 points and then lost decisively in the second? (which would've happened if even half of Perot voters voted for Bush.) Democrats would be screaming bloody murder and I wouldn't blame them one bit.

Do we go to a prime minister type system where Congress would pick the President somehow? I don't think Americans will go for not having any say on who the President is.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Ok, so I'm looking for some advice here as I'm thinking of actually not voting this year. Here's the reasons why:

1. There are no statewide races on the ballot. We have a Congressman who's running for re-election who is going to win in a landslide as his only opponents haven't even bothered to campaign. One is a Libertarian who has no chance of election and the other is a Democrat who lists his top reason for running as "After retirement my wife wanted me to get a job." Ugh. No governor, no Senate election, that's it. There are a few other state level jobs that are on the ballot, but those candidates are literally running unopposed. There is no one else on the ballot with them. The local offices are the same. Only one is actually contested and both candidates have annoyed the living crap out of me by spamming me with their "vote for me" nonsense non-stop for the past several months. Double ugh.

2. I'm in KS so I'm in a red state. My vote for Gary Johnson won't make a lot of difference. My vote for Romney or Obama wouldn't make a lot of difference either. Romney will win this state fairly easily so my vote doesn't matter much there.

3. The only real issues on our ballot locally is a referendum on whether to add fluoride to the water and a referendum on taxation of boats (I swear I'm not making this up). We don't have fluoride in our water right now even though it makes so much sense to have it and the nutjobs and whack a doodles have been crawling out of the woodwork with their mind control, forced medication, and horribly bad scientific arguments against it. I have a feeling it is going to get shot down in a landslide even though it got on the ballot because every single freaking dentist in town signed a petition. Every dentist in town thinks it's a good idea. That ought to mean something right? Apparently not. The other referendum would amend the state constitution so the legislature can cut taxes on boats. Currently they are taxed so high that few people buy boats and those who do register them in other states.

So, since my vote for President won't make a lot of difference, there are no statewide races and the flouride thing is going to get shot down in flames no matter what I'm considering just staying home even though I know that's the wrong thing to do. Can anyone encourage me to go to the polls?

 

[kool kat2]

Ok, so I'm looking for some advice here as I'm thinking of actually not voting this year. Here's the reasons why:

1. There are no statewide races on the ballot. We have a Congressman who's running for re-election who is going to win in a landslide as his only opponents haven't even bothered to campaign. One is a Libertarian who has no chance of election and the other is a Democrat who lists his top reason for running as "After retirement my wife wanted me to get a job." Ugh. No governor, no Senate election, that's it. There are a few other state level jobs that are on the ballot, but those candidates are literally running unopposed. There is no one else on the ballot with them. The local offices are the same. Only one is actually contested and both candidates have annoyed the living crap out of me by spamming me with their "vote for me" nonsense non-stop for the past several months. Double ugh.

2. I'm in KS so I'm in a red state. My vote for Gary Johnson won't make a lot of difference. My vote for Romney or Obama wouldn't make a lot of difference either. Romney will win this state fairly easily so my vote doesn't matter much there.

3. The only real issues on our ballot locally is a referendum on whether to add fluoride to the water and a referendum on taxation of boats (I swear I'm not making this up). We don't have fluoride in our water right now even though it makes so much sense to have it and the nutjobs and whack a doodles have been crawling out of the woodwork with their mind control, forced medication, and horribly bad scientific arguments against it. I have a feeling it is going to get shot down in a landslide even though it got on the ballot because every single freaking dentist in town signed a petition. Every dentist in town thinks it's a good idea. That ought to mean something right? Apparently not. The other referendum would amend the state constitution so the legislature can cut taxes on boats. Currently they are taxed so high that few people buy boats and those who do register them in other states.

So, since my vote for President won't make a lot of difference, there are no statewide races and the flouride thing is going to get shot down in flames no matter what I'm considering just staying home even though I know that's the wrong thing to do. Can anyone encourage me to go to the polls?

All i can think of is if everyone who thought their votes didn't count were to go vote, it would most likely make a difference. (insert speech about the value of our right to vote)