It's hard to get over 50% of the vote if there's a strong 3rd party

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It's hard to get over 50% of the vote if there's a strong 3rd party

Larry J — 9/27/2004 11:44:03 PM (archived)

Clinton never got over 50% of the popular vote, but he clearly won his elections, especially in the Electoral College. The campaign for president is way too long already (starts over a year before the election). Making people put up with a runoff election is more than a lot of people could stomach.

According to some reports, there were from several hundred thousand to perhaps a million+ votes that were not counted in the 2000 election. On average, some 2% of votes are invalid, so the number could be well over a million spoiled votes.

If we went to a nationwide popular vote to elect the president, then vote fraud like what happened in Wisconsin (college students admitted voting fraudulently and hobos were paid in cigarettes to vote for Gore), St Louis (judge ordered polling booths to stay open well after closing time to give more time to stuff the ballots), and other places would be even more profitable. As it is, someone bent of fraud has to manipulate several state elections to have an effect (like what happened in 1960). With a nationwide popular vote, the effects of fraud could be more easily covered by corrupting a few percentage of votes in many places.

The system isn't perfect, but it isn't as broken as some claim.

The whole thread (29 posts)

Something we could all work on together - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 6:02:27 PM
- Thanks Art, for extending the discussion, - jms - 9/27/2004 11:29:49 PM
  - Yes, agreed - ebnelson - 9/28/2004 7:06:58 PM
- A democratic website in Colorado is discussing this at length. - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 7:23:28 PM
- Good idea, but method of emergency replacement of Congress is higher priority - E.P. Grondine - 9/27/2004 6:59:33 PM
  - Tom Clancy says we'd survive and end up with Harrison Ford as President. Works for me. lol (n/t) - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 9:16:09 PM
  - re: We could survive 6 months without a congress. - Scott Evil - 9/27/2004 7:25:58 PM
    - We get hit that hard, and we will be worried more - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 8:52:25 PM
- Perhaps we should discuss the merits of the EC first? (n/t) - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 6:43:04 PM
  - Merits? - Tony - 9/27/2004 7:36:18 PM
    - The Electoral College was created for a reason - Larry J - 9/27/2004 8:45:21 PM
      - for a lot of reasons, many of which no longer exist - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 9:33:06 PM
        
        A representative republic is better at protecting the rights of a minority than a pure democracy - Larry J - 9/27/2004 9:48:14 PM
        
        It still would not be a pure democracy - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 10:34:06 PM
        
        It's hard to get over 50% of the vote if there's a strong 3rd party - Larry J - 9/27/2004 11:44:03 PM
        
        See merits of both arguments - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 11:52:29 PM
        
        Voter initiatives - Larry J - 9/28/2004 1:26:14 PM
        
        that may be so - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 9:46:39 PM
      - No amendment to constitution required - Tony - 9/27/2004 9:27:35 PM
        
        Ok, let's start with the biggest states... - Larry J - 9/27/2004 9:45:29 PM
        
        I was not aware taht it was being carpet bagged. - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 9:49:08 PM
        
        All votes do count today, and if you are a democrat, they often count twice. - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 9:45:18 PM
        
        Well the discussion was civil - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 10:04:49 PM
        
        Good point. - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 10:28:01 PM
        
        Jokes work for me. (n/t) - Art Martin - 9/27/2004 10:43:12 PM
    - re: Merits? - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 7:49:09 PM
      - re: Merits? - Marcia - 9/27/2004 8:15:20 PM
        
        A very good overview, thanks Marcia. (n/t) - jms - 9/27/2004 9:50:45 PM
        
        Very interesting. Thanks for posting the link. (n/t) - ebnelson - 9/27/2004 8:33:14 PM

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