U.S. election - don't worry, nothing political

[gemfyre]

Wow. Just read a Snopes article about a ballot going screwy.

I didn't realise you voted using a computer system in the U.S.

Australia just uses paper ballots. You read it, and number your preferences. I'm not exactly sure how they are counted, but I think the straightforward paper ballot certainly removes the room for computer error.

Comments

[analise.livejournal.com]

Also, in the US, the President is chosen by the number of states that he wins in - not the overall figure. So it's possible for a candidate to have a nation-wide majority vote, but not be elected President (apparently that's what happened in the last election). I'm no expert on the Australian political system, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works here.

Actually, it's determined by how many electoral votes the candidate gets. If you get very technical, the popular vote means nothing. Because, you see, something like 220 years ago, the Founding Fathers weren't sure that the common man was well-educated enough to be able to make an informed decision on who would be President. Not to mention that communication over long distances back then was rather iffy and it would've been hard for Joe Podunk out in the backwoods of Georgia to really know much about them High Falutin' Fellers up there in Philadelphia and the like. So they came up with this system wherein the Common Man is actually voting for a representative (elector) to vote for him. Hence, we're called a "representative democracy", not a "popular democracy". Anyway, the elector can actually vote however he or she likes, think of the popular vote as a suggestion for how the people think the elector ought to vote. The state thing is simple in that generally, whatever the popular vote outcome in a state is, that's how all of the electors vote. Hence, "winning states".

And now that I'm done babbling before class, I'll toddle off TO class. :)

[jassalol.livejournal.com]

Ahh. I see where I misunderstood the aituation. Still, as you said, the outcome is still the same :-)

Cheers for the education :P

[jassalol.livejournal.com]

aituation = situation

stupid keyboard and/or fingers

[stefanina.livejournal.com]

Also, the popular vote does determine the political party alignment of the electoral college delegates. That is why the electoral college vote is usually the same as the popular vote.

And yes, improperly punched holes in ballots in my state (Florida) is what caused the whole election debacle in the 2000 election.
My county uses scantron sheets for voting, and the margin of error is 2% or less. Not bad, really.
And, if there's any discrepancies, it's easy enough to manually recount them.