Question of Voting

Boston is in Massachusetts which is Kerry's homestate.  All of Massachusetts electoral vots will go to Kerry, that part of the election will not be close.  So, ine ssence, you friend's vote really won't matter one way or another.  I don't agree with him not voting.

What really sucks is that we use the electoral college system of voting, so it doesn't matter who gets the most votes.  What matters is that you need to get the most votes in certain states.  That sucks.  We should be using popular voting; the most votes wins, period.  Basically the outcome of this election depends on voting in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and a few other states.

I already voted.  For Kerry.

who is not bush but most like bush.

you guys need to get more choices and also to change your freekin' election system.... its crap.

ok.... first off... you only really have 2 choices to vote for.  most countries have atleast 4.  jesus... even canada has 5 that can have a certain amount of power in canadian parliment.  especially now because we don't have a majority government.

second.... your voting system works basically like this (as far as i can tell) :

you vote within your riding for a slate of electors who are supposed to vote for the president in this case bush or kerry.

now... lets think about these two things....

there have been a number of times that the slate of electors has not voted for the candidate that they were pledged to.  on top of that there have been atleast 4 times that the elector's votes did not align themselves with the popular vote.... the most recent being your last election.

this system of voting eliminates the small ridings in each state that vote oposite of the rest of the state.  and thus eliminating the possibility of having a third party representation.  it also does not represent ALL of the american people's views.

so how 'bout i put my foot in your mouth

I think the reasoning behind the electoral college is somewhat sound. Because if we had a straight popular vote the candidates wouldn't go anywhere but New York, Cali, Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Illinois. No one would ever go to fucking Iowa and Nevada and places like that.

Congratulations. now that's a whole paragraph. a sound one too i might add. good job.

www.electoral-vote.com

you guys are still working off of the Roman model of democracy.  its not like you have to change the whole thing all at once.... you've changed it slightly in the past.

all you have to do is slowely allow it to evolve with your country.  a stagnating system of voting is one that can be abused IMHO

its also twice as much as you've written in this thread.

you don't have to get upset man... try responding with a different opinion because you obviously think that the american voting system is working.

First of all, have you familiarize with the US constitutions? Does the word Tradition mean anything to you. It's something that should not be modified or tamperred with because it's very difficult for people to absolutely agree on a certain thing or issue.

i never said it was... you were the one that mentioned the size of my statement.

as for sound: there are many... many different systems of democratic government that i would deem better than the american way. logical: i stated a logical arguement based on the flaws in your system of election.  since what i'm talking about is hypothetical in nature (because we both know that your electoral system won't change) practicallity doesn't come into play here.  although it would be practical and in your best interest to have your vote mean more on a smaller scale.

you still haven't said anything to opose this and debate why this system of election is a good one.

i've read it.  i probably don't know it aswell as you should.

and yes... i do know what tradition means.

from what i gather ... amendments can be made.  they just aren't being made right now.

i've obviously said something that pissed you off.  you asked me to explain myself and after i did you decide that its a good idea to slag me for my opinion after saying that its my right to have one.

whatever happened to a polite debate buddy. 

we aren't talking about what my hobbies are, which infact include production and mixing records among many other musical endevours.  but i also have an interest in politics, philosophy and science.

apart from that if we had gotten into the conversation further i would have explained my problems with the canadian system of election (which is in constant revision in order to best represent the people of this nation!)

you need to chill out and relax a little... maybe take you own advice and go spin some disks.  if you don't feel like a debate don't ask for one.

the good side to the UK's regional division of power is for a "better" (read: in no ways the best) repesentation of the British Public . . . but according to region may not even be an accurate representation.  Using my previous example of the SNP having the most votes in Scotland last election, Labour won Scotland quite overwhelmingly. 

Im never up for a total domination of 1 or 2 parties ruling Parliament - it becomes a monopoly (yes, it pretty much is anyway). . . you definately need a widespread, and diversity of representation . . . and yes, this would include the less popular parties such as UKIP and BNP - because they still represent a certain part of the public who have every right to be heard just as much as everyone else in the country.

So how does the Canadian system work then, and how is it properly monitored (is there a public run committee or something?), and therefore revised - especially "constant" revision because I can see that causing confusion amongst voters without having some sort of uniformity. 

the changes in the canadian system have been happening slowely for a long time.  i guess the reasons are that we have a small population as compaired to our size and certain economic reasons have forced change in the recent years.

at this point this is basically how it works:

Canada is divided up into 308 seats in parliment. and 105 senators.

the 308 ridings have changed since original confederation but it still has to change again... many people believe in representation by population.  its not quite like that right now but its close.

there are a number of different political parties it was 5 major parties until a merger just before our last election... so 4 now.  Liberal, Conservative, Bloc Quebecois, New Democratic Party.  there are others... including the Green party!
each riding then elects their own member of parliment based on what is best for their region of the country etc. and the party with the most seats makes up the official governing party.  the Leader of that party is the Prime Minister.

the good thing is that in an election year like this past one the official government does not have a majority... ie... they can't just go passing bills through parliment becuase they have the most seats.  they will need the votes from atleast one other party or it will be a vote of nonconfidence and we go back to the polls for another election.