den | A question for United Statians who vote.

The primary election chooses the candidate that will represent the party in the presidential election. The only people who can vote in the primary election for a specific party are members of that party.

You can vote for whoever you want in the presidential election, regardless of which party you belong to.

Jinx! ;)

aaahh! Now I understand. Party candidate selection. right.

The primaries are sort of similar to the way party nominations work in parliamentary systems, where it's people who are technically the party members who vote for the leader - or, in this case, the presidential candidate. It's easier to get "into" the party for this than it is in a parliamentary system; in the US you just go out and register yourself as a voter for either party when you're registering to vote in the presidential election, and that entitles you to vote in the primaries for whichever party you sign up for. Registered REpublicans or Democrats can vote for absolutely whoever they want at the actual "choose the leader" election, but for choosing candidates it's limited to party affiliation.

The Primary process is not the process of "the Nation electing a new executive." It is the process of "a political party selecting its candidate to run for the position of executive." Therefore, in most states, one has to be a member of a political party to have the right to vote on the person that party will submit as a candidate for office.

Clear as mud?

The fellow actually has the simple option of re-registering as a Democrat if he wants to vote for Lieberman in his state's Primary, and then reregistering as a Republican after the Primary is over.

Alternately, some states (CA, frex) allow otherwise unaffiliated voters to request a particular party's Primary ballot, if the party agrees to allow that to happen.

But, essentially, a Primary is a taxpayer funded method of allowing a political party to vote for who it wants to run for national office.

AH! I understand the US system a little better now! Thanks.

How does your system work?

Poorly.

Seconded.

I don't think it's the fact that voting's non-compulsory as much as the fact that voters have to basically ask permission to vote. Voter's lists not only cut campaign lengths by ridiculous amounts, they increase turnout...

Voting is compulsory here. In fact, you have to explain why you didn't go to vote on Election day.

It's "going to vote" that is compulsory. We turn up and have our names crossed off. What happens after that is up to us. We can vote, walk out, or write 'All politicians are scum sucking arse-holes' on the ballot if we wish.

We get a 98% turn-out, and the campaign from announcement to New Prime Minister lasts about 5 weeks. So our current prime minister is a lying bastard who licks Bush's arse, but he did get in on a true majority vote. (which is a pity.)

Well, you've come to the right furson (actually, I came to you, but what the hey...)

I'm a sworn "Poll Inspector." That means I open, close, and supervise a polling place for the State. I get to do fun stuff like keeping the empty ballot box (sure, it is...) and blank ballots at home until the election, then returning it with the counted ballots (minus the ones we decide to throw-out, heehee) after the polls close (I even have to take a clerk with me to turn them in; if I fail to show up I can be arrested, and if any attempt is made to interfere with us *we* can arrest the person). All kidding aside, I have three clerks working with me, and we must all sign sworn affadavits that everything was right, and each ballot has a serial number on it so they can be accounted for. I even have to display the empty ballot box to the people waiting to vote when I open the polls before I put the seals on. The seals *stay* on until we close the polls, at which time we break the seals, and count the voted ballots as well as the "spoiled" ballots (where people make boo-boos and ask for another one). We have to let anyone from the public be present to supervise the counting, too, so it's not like Mexico. I also get to make pompous announcements like "By the power vested in me by the State of California, I hereby declare this polling place open" when I open and close the polls. Ah, such power! I also get to kick people out of the polls if they are wearing or display political paraphenalia, or call the police if anyone displays campaign stuff within 100 feet of the polls. This can be interesting if, like mine, the polling place is in a volunteer's garage, and a neighbor decides to put a campaing post in his own front yard. Yep, it has to come down. (I *was* hoping some arshole would wear a "Terminator" movie t-shirt during the last election, so I could kick his or her yuppie Republican arse out of my polling place, but no such luck. A "Sonic, the Hedgehog" shirt didn't count; besides, he was yiffy -- ahem).

The other posters are correct; the primaries are only to determine who will represent each of the parties in the general election, not just Republican or Democrat. In this state we have over 25 different parties, including the "Natural Law" and "Peace and Freedom" parties. Oh, we have the Greens, too. Also in California, as in a number of other States, we have an "open primary" (you need *not* be registered as a member of any party to vote for a candidate regardless of their party, but you can only vote for one candidate total). During a general election (which follows the primary) you can "write-in" the name of any candidate you wish. That's why, every election, we end up with "Bozo, the Clown," "Howdy-Doody," and "Alfred E. Newman" (of Mad Magazine fame) as tallied candidates. In fact, Madonna did pretty well during the last election, considering she didn't campaign at all. }:xD

What does continue to mystify most Americans, however, is the "Electoral College." A simple majority of votes does not assure a candidate of winning a Presidential election. The Electoral College votes, supposedly based *upon* the popular vote, and that decides it. It's a holdover from the days when communications took months, and was supposed to speed-up the results. Now it's just outmoded, confusing, and is a potential source of tampering.

As a Poll Inspector, you shouldn't really write subversive things like that. 8)

Our system is a lot different. Each state is broken up into electorates which each represent 1 seat in Parliament. Each party contests each seat with their local members. The winner gets that seat in Parliament. The party with the most seats is The Government, and the rest are The Opposition. The leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister. Should the current Prime Minister lose his seat, then he is OUT even if he is the leader of the party and The Government have to elect a new leader, who becomes Prime Minister. This can also happen if the party loses confidence in their leader, and they can elect a new leader who then becomes the new PM. (This has happened a few times!)

The Electoral College does my head in, but our system of Preferential Voting isn't much better.

After the first round of counting, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. He nominated who his votes are to be given to, and so his votes are then given to that candidate. Repeat until you have just 2 candidates, and the one with the most votes wins. Candidates don't have to assign a preference, and so their votes are not counted in the final tally. It also means their voter's votes haven't gone to someone else. A tally of "Informal ballots" (ie spoiled) is kept, and you can tell how little the voters liked the candidates by a high percentage of informals.

Heehee. I can say anything I want (as long as it is *not* in the polling place while it's open). During the last election, we were cautioned to not even discuss the weather, as there was a Native American named "Raincloud," and they feared that any discussion of the weather might include comments about "clouds" and "rain." *Sigh*

I once worked with an engineer from Queensland. He told me that unless you could trace your ancestry to an original convict from England that you didn't stand a chance in any election. Is there any truth to that? }:xD

Candidates don't assign preferences. Preferences are decided by what numbers the voter puts on their card. If you vote '2' for a candidate, it doesn't matter what the person you voted '1' for wants, that's where your second preference will go.

This doesn't stop parties making "preference deals" with each other, but those deals are solely to determine what order the numbers go on the "How to vote" cards that are handed out in front of the polling booths: the assumption being that enough of the party faithful will follow these cards to make a difference in the preference run-off.

POTENTIAL?!

Ha ha. :P

Try proven.... *sigh*

A question for United Statians who vote.

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