@craig – national consistency doesn’t mean there can’t be any fraud. It does mean that one small group of people at a centralized location can commit fraud in your country nationwide. Our system means that any fraud will be localized, rather than nationalized, though. We do have checks and balances, and while no system is perfect, I still think ours is as close as it gets. I don’t want the federal government telling me how I have to do it.

@AF Sarge – I agree with you about requiring ID to vote, but unfortunately, courts have been quick to overturn any requirement to the same, supporting the DNC’s position that it intimidates minority voters (read illegal voters). So, until we can shift the balance of power in the court system and oust the Clinton appointees who insist on legislating from the bench, we will have to rely on partisan poll watchers and crack legal teams to challenge inconsistencies.

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McCain Will Win in a Very Close Race…

Bob Krumm weighs in with this interesting election prediction: Final popular vote tally: Obama 49.2%, McCain 48.8%, Other 2%. Electoral votes: Obama 244, McCain 273, Pennsylvania’s 21 TBD. Wednesday the 5th won’t be pretty. Read the whole state-by-…

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So you see Mata, it is very similar to yours, except that we aggreed to do the election on the same laws, the same kind of voting, to make sure that there is no fraud.

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No Mata, you did not understand how it works.

Here is how it works:

RIDINGS AND MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT:
Canada is divided into 308 electoral districts or ridings. Voters in each riding elect one member of parliament or MP to send to the House of Commons. The Senate in Canada is not an elected body.

FORMING THE GOVERNMENT:
The party that wins the most ridings in a general federal election is asked by the Governor General to form the government. The leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister of Canada. If the party wins in more than 154 ridings, it will have a majority government, which makes it much easier to get legislation passed in the House of Commons. If the winning party wins 154 seats or fewer, it will form a minority government. In order to get legislation through the House, a minority government usually has to adjust policies to get enough votes from MPs of other parties. A minority government must constantly work to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons in order to stay in power.

THE OFFICIAL OPPOSITION:
The political party that wins the second highest number of seats in the House of Commons becomes the Official Opposition.

EVERY PROVINCE gets a number of ridings (or electoral districts) depending on its population. Quebec has 75, Ontario 123, etc. It is very similar to yours, but we do it by the same law, not separated laws. That’s all.

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[...] Look, people, it behooves you to know what time your polling place closes. This can’t be difficult; I’m sure you can netsearch that information, but DO take a moment tonight to FIND OUT when your precinct closes. And remember this election is not “over” until the last precincts in Hawaii call it in! Where ever you live and however you plan to vote, Do not let anyone talk you out of voting. [...]

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Craig:

To me, it is a nonsense that the President of U.S. is not elected by the people of America. I think I prefer a federation than a republic. Each provinces are free to do what they want, but every Canadians has it says in voting for the Prime Minister of Canada. After all it is the most important position of a country.

As I said, if the POTUS were elected by popular national vote, the office would be decided by the population of NYC, LA, Dallas, Atlanta, etal… only the big urban population areas. To have 9 or so states, or cities, decide for all is not what the framers had in mind.

You must understand, the Founding Fathers figured this out with the rural farmers, and those of the heavier populations way back when. Our election process, with the Elecotral College, is laid out in our Constitution… and for good reason. This is also why we have a House of Representatives, with the # of representatives based on state population, but also tempered by the Senate, which has two from every state *regardless* of population. All of this levels the playing field between urban populations, and the more sparse rural populations.

So if you support “popular” vote, you may want to switch to the DNC… as they like to push the same theory…. LOL

Please also read my comment #13. I am always stuck in moderation on this site and it takes a long time for it to get out of it… so finally, nobody reads it.

Change that “always stuck” to “occasionally stuck” please. The majority of your posts go straight thru. But I’ve also found Aye, Stix, RockyB and other regulars that end up occasionally in the moderation filter (not spam, moderation) for who knows why. Hang… I’ve even found myself there on occasion. LOL

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Wisdom,

I do understand what you are telling me. But I find that a bit insane. Think of it as a house. You have differnet rooms, kitchen, bedrooms, living room, etc. They are all separated rooms with different fonctions, but they are still in the same house on the same mortgage.

To me, it is a nonsense that the President of U.S. is not elected by the people of America. I think I prefer a federation than a republic. Each provinces are free to do what they want, but every Canadians has it says in voting for the Prime Minister of Canada. After all it is the most important position of a country.

Please also read my comment #13. I am always stuck in moderation on this site and it takes a long time for it to get out of it… so finally, nobody reads it.

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I’d say Wisdom covers our system more than adequately, Craig. The state elections for electoral votes, which decides the election. And how those electoral votes are designated differs from state to state, as per state law.

I understand what you are saying about the “change”. But it’s just not how the US of A was set up as a republic. Our POTUS is not a popular vote election. If it were so, the rural residents would have no say, and only the large urban centers of the US would decide who rules the rest of us. Rather “undemocratic” even for a “democracy”… which we are not.

The way you describe your separate PM elections, your federal officials are a popular vote. I would not wish for the US to change to that here.

I would, however, love to see an ID to vote implemented here. But again, because of the federal vs state laws, that seems to be impossible. The feds cannot infringe on the states’ jurisdiction for election laws. And the states shy away from it as unconstitutional in nature.

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@Craig – Most non-Americans (a pretty good number of Americans for that matter) don’t understand that we are electing a “President of the UNITED STATES”. The federal nature of our government is lost on many people, as is the intended sovereignty of our individual states. Unlike most countries, which are nations divided into provinces, America is a nation of independant states that are united to form a country.

When individual territories agreed to enter into statehood, it was with the understanding that they would retain a certain level of self governance, independent of the centralized federal government. While the federal government has systematically chipped away at that independence, it still exists.

As such, the citizens of each state elect representatives (the electoral college) that in turn elect the president. Contrary to the understanding of most non-Americans (and again, a pretty good number of Americans) the president is NOT elected directly by the people. Part of the reason for this is that a very large part of America is made up of states that comprise a large percentage of the nation’s land and natural resources, but a small minority of the population. If they had been subject to simple majority rule in their federal representation, they would never have joined the union in the first place, because they would have then been the easy victims of majority rule from the states that have hgher density populations.

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Mata,
We have the same here. Each province decides for their own. Each province has a Prime Minister, deputies and laws of its own. But when we vote for the Prime Minister of Canada we agreed it to be a national uniform system. The only difference is that it is a different date for provincial’s election. We do not do both at the same time. And it works perfectly… you cannot steal an election here like you can in the States.

I think that the States should follow that form of voting for the wellbeing of your entire nation.

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