American vs Canadian efficiency

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Ricco,

At 05:03 11/30/2000 -0600, you wrote:

Minor corrections, additions interspersed...

>Gore won the popular vote by 300,000 out of 100 million votes cast.  But in
>American Democracy the popular vote does not count for the President.

Republicans would say that Hillary/Gore won New York City by far more than 
300,000, ...the rest of the country went for Bush.

>Instead the states vote in what is called the Electoral College.  Usually
>the electoral votes come out like the popular vote but not this time.  Each
>state has an pre-assigned number votes.

Equal to total representation in Congress, i.e. 2 senators plus however 
many representatives.

>   Florida has 25.  Winner of the popular vote in the state takes all.

The electoral college ensures that the smaller states have some input into 
the government. Case in point - Clinton, throughout ALL his campaigning and 
8 YEARS of occupying the oval office NEVER set foot in Nebraska!  Not 
enough electoral votes for him to consider it necessary to visit where a 
lot of his food (McDonald's) comes from, I guess.  He'll finally be 
visiting there soon, for some reason.

>   In the Fla. recount  Bush's lead is
>now down to 500 votes from 1,500.  So with 10,000 votes uncounted, (ones the
>machines rejected for whatever reasons)

Those ballots were counted twice by machine, and votes for other offices 
recorded.  Many had no vote for president.  I submit that, had there been 
the choice, "non-of-the-above" would have won by a landslide. I also submit 
that a Bradley/McCain contest would have given a real choice other than 
TweedleDee and Justplaindumm.

>  and his lead dwindling (hmmm it
>could just as easily gone the other way)  Bush's best interest is not to
>take a chance on those ballots but rather preserve the count he likes.  Now
>the Governor of Fla. who just happens to be Bush's brother agrees and
>instructed his hand picked secretary of state

Back up here, Kemosabi.  As I understand, the Secretary of State is an 
ELECTED position, so she was "appointed" by the VOTERS of the entire state, 
not appointed by JEB.

>to hurry up and declare his brother the winner.

Whoa, again!  The Florida state Supreme Court usurped her discression 
(prior to when she could have excercised it) and set it's own later 
deadline for certification.  As she is bound to uphold the election laws 
(her job description), as amended/clarified/whatevered by the court, she 
was not given the discression to re-extend the deadline.  The county which 
is weeping and wailing about missing that DEADLINE by 2 or 3 _hours_ chose 
not to count Thanksgiving day and didn't start again until noon 
Friday.  They missed that deadline by their own actions/inactions and 
volition, NOT by her applying the law(as amended).

Her partisan Republican hands were tied by the partisan Democratic 
court.  Had she given in to partisan Democratic hollerin' and given an 
(another) extension, she probably would have been held in contempt of court 
for doing the favor.

>  So 500 votes out of several million will get all of
>Floridia's 25 electoral votes which will give a majority in the Electoral
>College.
>     To get the President elected by direct popular vote would require an
>ammendment to the Constitution. ---ric  (the "c" stands for consititutional
>guarantees)

The whole election will be a moot point, anyway.  Both houses are pretty 
evenly divided, and now extremely polarized by this post-election campaign. 
Whoever wins will never be able to lead a gridlocked congress.


Conrad, 
who-now-wonders-if-his-military-absentee-votes-in-'68-and-'72-ever-counted.

Note: Santa Claus only makes his list and checks it twice. (2 recounts)




Conrad Hoffsommer - mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu
*They call television a medium. That's because it is neither rare nor well 
done.
*98% of the population is asleep. The other 2% are staring around in 
complete amazement, abject terror, or both.