Iran and the U.S. == Democracy --
As I'm sure most out there have, I've been reading a lot in the news about Iran's disputed elections and the protests and it got me wondering just how different their election process is from what I'm used to. I've read a little bit about it and it seems that after the results of the popular vote are shuffled through their Interior Ministry they are verified by a Guardian Council and then finally approved by Ali Khamenei who has constitutional authority to overturn the vote of the people if he chooses.
Compare this process to that of the US. We have a popular vote which doesn't really mean anything on the federal level. Most states use the popular vote to determine the members of the Electoral College and by extension how their Electoral votes will go. The Electoral College generally consists of elite members of each the Democratic and Republican parties. The vote of each states Electoral College is verified by that that states Governor and turned into the President of the Senate who then presents the results to both houses of the Congress. The person with the clear majority is declared president.
There is no Constitutional requirement that I am aware of that requires the popular vote to be used in a certain way and it is very possible to win the popular vote and lose in the electoral college. This happened in the Gore / Bush elections of 2000. Gore won the popular vote by over five-hundred thousand in that election but the political elite of electoral college declared Bush the winner... Like Iran, we had riots also but you didn't see those in the news.
Neither the United States or Iran have direct democracy. Both of our democracies depend on the will of the political elite and their consideration of the popular vote. That's minus one for democracy in my book. democracy--
Compare this process to that of the US. We have a popular vote which doesn't really mean anything on the federal level. Most states use the popular vote to determine the members of the Electoral College and by extension how their Electoral votes will go. The Electoral College generally consists of elite members of each the Democratic and Republican parties. The vote of each states Electoral College is verified by that that states Governor and turned into the President of the Senate who then presents the results to both houses of the Congress. The person with the clear majority is declared president.
There is no Constitutional requirement that I am aware of that requires the popular vote to be used in a certain way and it is very possible to win the popular vote and lose in the electoral college. This happened in the Gore / Bush elections of 2000. Gore won the popular vote by over five-hundred thousand in that election but the political elite of electoral college declared Bush the winner... Like Iran, we had riots also but you didn't see those in the news.
Neither the United States or Iran have direct democracy. Both of our democracies depend on the will of the political elite and their consideration of the popular vote. That's minus one for democracy in my book. democracy--
Comments
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections.
The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes--that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
The Constitution gives every state the power to allocate its electoral votes for president, as well as to change state law on how those votes are awarded.
The bill is currently endorsed by 1,659 state legislators — 763 sponsors (in 48 states) and an additional 896 legislators who have cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). The recent Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University poll shows 72% support for direct nationwide election of the President. This national result is similar to recent polls in closely divided battleground states: Colorado-- 68%, Iowa --75%, Michigan-- 73%, Missouri-- 70%, New Hampshire-- 69%, Nevada-- 72%, New Mexico-- 76%, North Carolina-- 74%, Ohio-- 70%, Pennsylvania -- 78%, Virginia -- 74%, and Wisconsin -- 71%; in smaller states (3 to 5 electoral votes): Delaware --75%, Maine -- 71%, Nebraska -- 74%, New Hampshire --69%, Nevada -- 72%, New Mexico -- 76%, Rhode Island -- 74%, and Vermont -- 75%; in Southern and border states: Arkansas --80%, Kentucky -- 80%, Mississippi --77%, Missouri -- 70%, North Carolina -- 74%, and Virginia -- 74%; and in other states polled: California -- 70%, Connecticut -- 73% , Massachusetts -- 73%, New York -- 79%, and Washington -- 77%.
The National Popular Vote bill has passed 28 state legislative chambers, in small, medium-small, medium, and large states, including one house in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oregon, and both houses in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington. These five states possess 61 electoral votes -- 23% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com