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posted by
martyb
on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:14PM
from the how-many-candidates-are-there-now? dept.
from the how-many-candidates-are-there-now? dept.
"Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)........is launching a second run for the White House in 2020." breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/19/bernie-sanders-2020-bid
"Reaction to the news was split......with some supporting the 77-year-old and others upset with the move." foxnews.com/politics/trump-campaign-pokes-fun-at-bernie-sanders-2020-announcement-as-reaction-splits-on-candidacy
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Bernie Sanders Announces White House Bid
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:36AM (1 child)
The citizens of the United States of America do not vote for President. On the ballots it sure looks like you do, but you don't.
What you vote for is a slate of electors to represent your state. Each Presidential candidate has, in each state in which he or she appears on the ballot, a specifically named group of people who have pledged to vote for that candidate should said group be selected to represent that state in the Electoral College. When selected to represent their state, it is these people who vote for President.
So each state (and the District of Columbia) is holding completely separate elections. Grouping together the votes of these completely separate elections for Electoral College representatives, and discussing them like a single election (i.e., the "popular vote") is like grouping together the votes across the country for each county's animal control officer -- in other words, you're doing it wrong.
This is part of the reason why it's called the United States of American, and not the United People of America.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday February 20 2019, @10:31PM
I am well aware of how the election works, I'm not nine years old.
The EC was set up as it is in a time when news traveled at the speed of horse and the average citizen was unlikely to have more than one or two interactions with the federal government in their lifetime. Then we invented telegraph and trains started running across the country. The Federal government became a more common presence in people's lives.
Rather than re-write the Constitution and re-engineer the whole electoral process the states decided that the popular vote would select the electors (rather than the state government). as a sort of hack to make the system conform to the results of the popular vote. For the entirety of the 20th century, it did. No elected president failed to also win the popular vote. IIRC there were only 3 cases in the 19th century where a president won the EC but not the popular vote.
We have seen 2 presidential terms like that here in the 21st century, W's first term and Trump.
TYhe upshot is, Trump only squeaked by for his first term, in spite of the DNC trying to coronate HRC over the objections of much of their rank and file. He hasn't done anything to expand his popularity so far, No big wins, the first single party shutdown in U.S. history, and some frankly embarrassing (and a bit worrying) comments praising oppressive world leaders.
Based on that, all the DNC needs to do is not screw the pooch again.