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There seem to be two issues that are being conflated on this thread.
There are rules about selecting the party candidates for POTUS.
There are laws about electing the POTUS.
Political parties are private organizations not mentioned in the Constitution and can make up their own rules (within the bounds of some laws - written by members of the two major parties). If the Democratic Party decides that Howard Dean will personally select his choice to be POTUS nominee by picking a name out of his shoe, they can do that. You can then choose to join a different political party if you like.
Voting in an actual election for government officials is a very different thing than "voting" for the leader of a private organization. The latter is a selection process, the former is an election process.
Last week the people in my office selected me as the winner of one of our monthly bonuses. The method we used? Drawing my name randomly from a hat. Because we are a private business, we made up are own rules. The political parties have the same right.
Is anybody concerned about having delegates vote for them, instead of just a popular vote, without having to vote for a delegate to cast a vote for you? I know that delegates are the Constitutional way of voting--for the reason of keeping the voting honest--but things were different then. Do you think we need an amendment, doing away with delegates?--Or maybe we are not qualified to elect our own President. It seems the Founding Fathers thought we were not. Do our State delegates really know, better than we, who should receive our vote. I know that about half of them are pledged to vote for the candidate who receives the popular vote in their State--the other half are unpledged, and can vote aganist the popular vote, if they wish--depends on what State you're in, and if you are Dem, or Repub. The Dems have super-delegates. The Repubs don't. Also the Dems have more delegates than the Repubs. I am just wondering what your opinion is about delegates in general. Do you think they should have to show how they are qualified to vote for us? I don't know of any rules of qualification they have to adher to.
Yes, I think both of my votes counted in the Texas primary AND caucus.
The popular vote is a flawed system thats why our founding fathers didn't push for it... look it at this way... You live in New York but most of the people live in NYC and made laws that were good for NYC ONLY... like everyone has to pay higher tax except people who live in NYC who are subsidize for their taxes... sounds good if you live in NYC, not so good if you don't... that's why the electoral college was performed so that everyone in the state of New York has an equal voice, just because more people live in one area doesn't mean they can kick around people from other areas (and they WOULD if they could - especially those socialist/communist people). The founding fathers were INCREDIBLY bright because they started a country with constitution that was fair and prevented tyranny (and they knew a thing about tyranny back then)... unfortunately we are moving down a road of tyranny when Congress and the President elects to supercede the constitution... Hello, communism... are you there sneaking around?
I aggree there but theprimaries are flawed. It should go on a popualr vote. But i the end they make sure that even governamnt is flawed in that political power is in numbers. Just take the welfare system in this country. 80 % of poverty is in two rural regions of this country. 8 0% of fed aid goes to the other 20% which are in urban areas. Why? Because the 80% have much more power.That basically is what our system is power in groups called special interest.As more and more people oragnise into specail interest the governamnt has increased spending to basically buy more votes; to teh point that the federal governamnt is the biggest credit user of all.
The democrats just showed us they do not even trust their own people. The party that used to believe in the power of a single vote just voted for you.
Yes, all elections should go by the popular vote, get rid of the delegates voting, they should vote on how their people voted in their own areas.
The democratic party should be ashamed of themselves, they create this monster and will pay for it in the end.
This has to go down as one of the worst decisions within a party in our history.
It is not really possible to vote for POTUS by popular vote because we are a nation of independent states. Only DC is a federal entity. So each state has apportioned representatives in the electoral college.
It is incredible to me that so many people think we live in a direct democracy. We cannot have NY and California and Texa making the rules for all of us, so we have a representative democracy and the Senate is where all states have an equal voice.
But the senate is not the beall end all. Just as large cities have much more power than small cities and especaily rural areas unless your a farmer it seems. Just looking at where federal aid to poevrtygoes shows a clear indication of where the power is. The citeis which account for 20% of poverty get 80% of the federal dollars.At one time NY got $1.65 returned from the money they sent thew federal governamnt in the 60's whilw Texas got 75 cents.Its power that really matters as a senator from a state can spend his whole career and write numerous bills but power will decide if it even gets to the floor of the senate;much less passes.Its all in how the pie is sliced and the powerful. If you looked at the priamries it is evident that even cities within a sate can decide the sate and that is even more so in a winner take all general election.Clinton would have steam rolled if the democratic primary had been a general elction with her wins in those big states.
Yes, I think both of my votes counted in the Texas primary AND caucus.
What about you vote?
My State--which happens to be NM, has pledged Delegates, so I hope my vote counted. We only have 5 electoral votes, which makes us a swing State. Your State--Tx--which is my home State, has unpledged delegates. I hope my dear home state of Tx. comes thro with flying colors. Someday. I hope to return to my old home town there, and renew my allegiance to the State of my birth. My genealogy goes back there to Ft Parker, in Grosbeck. Mexia, and Buffalo. Forgive me--a different thread.
The popular vote is a flawed system thats why our founding fathers didn't push for it... look it at this way... You live in New York but most of the people live in NYC and made laws that were good for NYC ONLY... like everyone has to pay higher tax except people who live in NYC who are subsidize for their taxes... sounds good if you live in NYC, not so good if you don't... that's why the electoral college was performed so that everyone in the state of New York has an equal voice, just because more people live in one area doesn't mean they can kick around people from other areas (and they WOULD if they could - especially those socialist/communist people). The founding fathers were INCREDIBLY bright because they started a country with constitution that was fair and prevented tyranny (and they knew a thing about tyranny back then)... unfortunately we are moving down a road of tyranny when Congress and the President elects to supercede the constitution... Hello, communism... are you there sneaking around?
I agree with much of what you say. It seems that many of our citizens are not familiar with the concept of the reason of why the Founding Fathers decided that the popular vote was not the best way to elect a president--as an earlier poster stated--The President was supposed to be a mediator in a federal sense, and not a dispute settler between individual people, and their State. That's why "State's Rights are so important, and the Federal Government should not interfere--other than cases that supercede those rights,
We're a representative democracy from the bottom to the top. Just because we don't like the outcome of certain elections (as we've seen in the past few presidential cycles) doesn't mean we should start electing by popular vote. If you really want your vote to count, get involved with your local party, become a delegate, and vote.
Except that everyone can not become a delegate. We just have to make sure that the chosen delegates are qualified to represent the best candidate, with no vested interest. Unfortunately, these days, not all delegates have our best interests at heart. There should be some criteria that insures us that they accept no favors from candidates from any side.
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Does you vote really count
I hope so
