RE: OT: Get Out And Vote! now Electoral Colleges

[Guest guest]

Hi Chris

 

> Today is Election Day in the USA and I can't and won't tell anyone here

> who to vote for - but get yer behinds out there and vote!

 

WITHOUT getting into any political discussions, is there anyone on this list

who can explain the electoral college process and what it means (very simple

and very brief would be great)? I heard a great deal about the collegiate

votes four years ago and I couldn't grasp exactly what it meant although I

have a vague idea.

 

I've wondered about this for a few years and I've never read or seen an

explanation.

 

Vicki

[Guest guest]

Hi Vicky -

 

This is how I explained it in a way that is as simple as possible for my young

ones without getting into the whole history.

 

Each state has senators and representatives. Based on that total is how many

electoral votes that state has to present to the nation.

 

As each local district reports in (each town in each state!!) the results are

forwarded to greater regions until eventually all of the results get to the main

reporter for the state.

 

Whichever president got the most votes wins that state's electoral votes. That

is why you can have someone win more states than someone else but if they won in

states with a greater number of electoral votes they can still win the election.

 

I believe Maine and Nebraska operate differently but I'm not sure why.

 

That is it in a nutshell.

 

Of course there is a lot more detail available out there as far as the history

of how districts are assigned in order to determine how many representatives and

senators each state gets - although my fuzzy brain says we all have two senators

and it's the reps that is the number that can change.

 

www.askjeeves.com can return a lot of great links for answers for these sorts of

questions. This is one of the first links that came up

www.fec.gov/pages/ecmenu2.htm.

 

 

Dale

 

 

[Guest guest]

On Tuesday, November 2, 2004, at 05:19 PM, Vicki Younger wrote:

> WITHOUT getting into any political discussions, is there anyone on

> this list

> who can explain the electoral college process and what it means (very

> simple

> and very brief would be great)?  I heard a great deal about the

> collegiate

> votes four years ago and I couldn't grasp exactly what it meant

> although I

> have a vague idea.

>

 

Hi Vicki,

Here's a nice link for you.

 

http://www.electoral-vote.com/info/electoral-college.html

 

Gail

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Thanks Dale

 

> This is how I explained it in a way that is as simple as possible for my

> young ones without getting into the whole history.

>

> Each state has senators and representatives. Based on that total is how

> many electoral votes that state has to present to the nation.

 

I guess it's not that different to what happens here but worded a little

differently just to confuse us! It sounds like a similar system really even

though we operate under the Westminster system.

 

Vicki

[Guest guest]

Hi Gail and thanks

 

> Here's a nice link for you.

>

> http://www.electoral-vote.com/info/electoral-college.html

 

I can't access that site now maybe due to traffic, but I'll look later when

things are a bit quieter.

 

Vicki