h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Voting in the United States - A1168850
Author: FloridaSailor - U235886

This is intended as a comanion piece to my entry on the U.S. Government

Hello Sailor

"With campaign workers and their signs kept a respectable distance for the entrance"
Should that be...
"With campaign workers and their signs kept [at] a respectable distance from the entrance"


"is recorded in into the machine"

I think everyone will know what you meant here...

"The computer will not allow more than one vote for each entry, unless it is allowed."

.. but it's a little arkward.

I have never seen a voting machine, so I was interested in their descriptions. While I was in Texas I know that colleagues from the comany I was working for were "summoned" to inspect the machines. Is this still done?

Awu.

Ok all good points and changed I am not sure about all the inner working of the system but am rather writing from the viewpoint of an experanced voter. I can assure you that the accuracy of the machines is taken quite seriously especially after 2000!

Thanks

How about mentioning that winning a state is based on plurality? It seems obvious, but it would still be useful.

If you're feeling busy, how about mentioning the flaw in the plurality system that allows the candidate that is least preferred by the majority of voters to win in a multiple candidate election?

I've always wanted to do an entry on famous elections, actually, but that's a different subject

Added to the section on political parties, also added a line about non-parisan races I had intended but forgot. Have you ever studied the race of John Quincy Adams, the only other presidential son to be "elected"?

I never really got to researching it...

You will enjoy that one, lost the popular vote, came in last in the electorial college, got elected in the house! Not to give away the ending.

Ok, I got a bit lost here but I am glad to see an entry on this because I've never understood the US system...

Your opening bit implies that this election is held every other year, but you don't have a new president every other year so how often are the presidential elections?

In the primaries are you voting for who you want to see stand for president? Then you have a secondary round, how is this different to the general election? Is the general election only about the president? When do you vote for you local representative (is this a separate process)?

Good start, but I think it may need to be a little clearer for non-US citizens...

could you please clarify exactly what you mean by 'stand for president' although I think I know I'm not quite certain. The primary picks the party's candidate or at least thier people for the convention.

I really want this to be undersandable to non-americans

I don't really know, that is why I was asking...

It seems that you have a round of elections (the primaries) where you go and vote for who you want to see in the next round of elections (ie stand for election as president), is that right?

Yes, that's it exactly if too many people run in the general election with the same views they would just split the votes and loose. Now to explain it in the entry. Will work on it. Thanks again.

Added a section to explain how often the elections take place. I had this in originally and wound up making it a seperate entry.

In my earlier post my confusion was that in the US we say 'run for office' rather 'stand for office' I beleive they mean the same but you know how tricky a common language can be.

There's a great quote from someone (John McCain maybe) that is something like 'It is assumed that every senator is running for President unless they are amidst a scandal or are currently in a detoxification program'

Anyway, Kelli just reminded me of it. I think she means by standing that they declare their intention to run if nominated. For instance, in the 2004 election, a whole busload of democrats are trying to get the Democratic nomination. The incumbent is often the assumed nomination of the party - Bush

Okay. Some specifics

City election are --> City elections are

"One of the effects of having more than two candidates in a single race is known as plurality which means that the winning candidate may have far less than 50% of the vote." This is a bit misleading, I think. You imply that plurality means that there can be less than a majority. Of course, it means simply that the candidate with the most votes wins.

"There have been only two major political parties, the democrats and republicans, for well over a hundred years" The Republican party hasn't quite been a major one since the 1940s. There is a bit of explanation at my unfinished entry at A991488 under the header 'their first real support'

No mater --> No matter

By the way, not every state has counties. Louisiana has something similar to counties called Parishes, I believe. Could you add a short footnote?

The Electorial College --> The Electoral College

Also, here are some good entries to link to, if you have the time-

A525278 - The Constitution of the United States of America
A506341 - Libertarianism
A781887 - How Best to Prepare Yourself to Become President of the USA (I like this entry, but I'm not sure how you'd link it, so don't worry too much about this one)

I do rather like this entry though, and these are just some minor nitpicks and suggestions

Good luck!

Your third suggestion could be fit into the section on Candidates

I realized what Kelli meant after I had posted, It's interesting that in Britain they stand for office and in the US they run, I guess we expect them to be a little more athletic.

Fixed the typos and spelling errors, and just took out the plurality altogether, it wasn't really necessary anyway (even if it is fun to say )

I read your entry and it sounds interesting, but as the Republicans were the only party ( except for the socialist in 1932 ) to field a presidential candidate during those years I'll stand by the two major parties, I never said the races were tight.

I do remember when the first Republic after re-construction was elected governor of Florida, it was a major scandal!

As for the links I put Libertarianism in the body and the others in the margin box.

I put this one on voting and my overview of the government both up at the same time and now I keep forgetting which points I put in each, each kind of grew out of the other and were inspired by the UK voting number thread.

some nit picking points

Section: Political Parties
should democrats and republicans be Democrats and Republicans?
Voter Registration
I'm not sure about capitalisation in this but the equivalent of state senate etc. would probably have capital letters in England.

Question on voting in primaries. In the UK we have lots of votes for party candidates within parties and I know some of the parties use a transferrable vote.
In this you state who your first preference is, your second preference and so on down the list of candidates.
When the votes are counted if there is no overall winner on first preferences the person with the lowest vote drops out and their second preferences are allocated to the other candidates.
This is continued down the order until an overall winner is selected. There may be a difficluty if after all other preferences have been counted the two remaining candidates are tied. In one experience I have had of this they then look back at who had the most first preference votes.

Is there anything similar in the US or is everything what we call "First Past the Post" i.e. most votes but not necessarily a majority.

some nit picking points

Section: Political Parties
should democrats and republicans be Democrats and Republicans?
Voter Registration
I'm not sure about capitalisation in this but the equivalent of state senate etc. would probably have capital letters in England.

Question on voting in primaries. In the UK we have lots of votes for party candidates within parties and I know some of the parties use a transferrable vote.
In this you state who your first preference is, your second preference and so on down the list of candidates.
When the votes are counted if there is no overall winner on first preferences the person with the lowest vote drops out and their second preferences are allocated to the other candidates.
This is continued down the order until an overall winner is selected. There may be a difficluty if after all other preferences have been counted the two remaining candidates are tied. In one experience I have had of this they then look back at who had the most first preference votes.

Is there anything similar in the US or is everything what we call "First Past the Post" i.e. most votes but not necessarily a majority.

Just a quick thought.

Is it worth mentioning about military votes that need a verification signiture. (I only know about this from reading about the presidential election mess.)

Researcher PSG

Clarified the section on primaries in the "first bout" section.
Changed the capitalization of the parties, I'm not sure of the offices but I believe the rule is to capitalize if it refers to one person lower case if it is just the office ie "the President said." or "he ran for president" other opinions welcome.

Added a full section about absentee ballots, unfortunately in researching it I have a list of 51 different requirements ( incuding the District of Columbia ).

In the voting precints section you might want to mention the loads of volunteers as well as public employees that organize and monitor the polling place.

In many areas of the country there are representatives of each party present in the polls to monitor that the process is impartial. Municipal voting regulators also are on hand to be sure that voting laws are being upheld. Usually the oversight for this task rests with the Secretary of State, for each of the states, but i think Lousianna, Indiana and 1-2 other states have a different system, and a handful of states have specifically elected or appointed election officials.

Friar