[OFB Cafe] Electoral College (was Re: Bio Fuels)

[Derek Broughton]

On July 22, 2008 13:51:59 Timothy Butler wrote:

> 	See the problem is that the election is not a national election, but
> 50 state elections. It's part of the whole idea of representative
> democracy, and one that reminds everybody that the U.S. is really 50
> states, not fifty provinces. 

I understand that.  However, I think if a president managed to get elected 
with say 25% of the national popular vote, people might seriously start to 
wonder if there's not something wrong with the system.  I don't know the 
numbers (I wonder how many Americans do), so perhaps it's not possible that a 
president could be elected with such a small vote, but it's certainly 
possible to do it with much less than 40%

Living in a country where it's not uncommon for the Prime Minister's party to 
not get much more than that, I know from experience there's some major issues 
here.
-- 
derek