Political Question Re: voting

Please do not flame me for this one, I really am curious, as I am not 100% versed in politics.

Why does everyone make such a tremendous deal about voting for the presidential election when the popular vote does not determine the election winner?

Also, who, exactly, counts as electoral votes? Senators, govenors, etc?

Re: Political Question Re: voting

The way I understand it, each state is allocated a certain number of electoral votes. This is based on their population (ie New York and California have a ton, Rhode Island, not so much....). The popular vote within each state will determine which candidate wins that state, and all the electoral votes from that state will go to that candidate. So, for example, if you live in a state that is predominantly Democratic and you are a Republican, you may see your vote as useless b/c your state is likely to be "won" by the Democrat regardless of if you vote or not.

When people say the popular vote doesn't count, they are referring to the COUNTRYWIDE popular vote, which does not matter. The State's popular vote does matter as it determines which candidate gets ALL the electoral votes from that state.

Also, states can not split their electoral votes, it's all or nothing. When you see those maps of the US with some states red and some blue, that's what it means--all the electoral votes from that state went to that candidate.

HTH!

Re: Political Question Re: voting

Yes, it does - it makes sense now. Thanks

It still sucks that an majority of people want a certain person in office, but that doesn't happen just because a certain state on has so many "electoral" votes. I will think more highly of it when the popular vote decides an election.