On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 07:17:22 +0100, Ace wrote:

So, by your own admission, in *The Great Democracy*, some people's
votes count, others don't?

(Just a question, not a statement from this "ignorant" Limey - so
don't go having a temper tantrum.)

Ahh, an outsider commenting upon the American Constitutional process.
(Ours is written, so it's much easier to refer to than the British one
which has to be cobbled together from miscellanous ramblings of the
Parliament and the courts over centuries.)

Now, pay attention. The popular vote is not definitive in electing the
President of the United States. It is done, according to the
Constitution by an Electoral College.

The EC has one vote for each member of House/Senate of each state. The
states themselves determine how to select their electors and the
procedure for the electors to vote. Most states mandate that all
electors of the state vote for the plurality winner of that state's
presidential balloting.

A majority of the EC votes is required to win election, not a
plurality. Since a relationship between margin of victory in the
various states and the total vote of the EC is not direct, it is very
possible to have an EC victory without winning the nationwide popular
vote.

These were the rules going into the election and all the players knew
them. The popular vote (even if it were accurately determined) is not
the means of electing our president.

BTW, how do you guys elect your PM? Oh, you don't have a nationwide
popular vote? What kind of democracy is that?


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8