Really Stoned- Don't Understand the Point of Elections

Its because the popular vote does somewhat correlate with the electoral college votes.

Basically you're vote is counted if who you voted for wins your state. So the voters in your state determine who the electoral college representative for their state vote for.

Not that I agree with it, but there has only been one election in history that Im aware of in which the popular vote went to the loser of the election (GORE).

Hope that makes it more clear.

 

They can certainly try, but its still our decision.

 

that makes 2 of us my bro.

T.I.A bro

 

Yeah, we do. Whatever the majority vote is for a state, the electoral college votes that way. It works that way everywhere Ive lived/heard of atleast.


They don't really "tally" anything. I don't agree with it, but its not like our votes dont count at all.

 

The electoral college is supposed to balance out the populations of each state since, clearly, some states are much bigger than others.

 

Short answer is that your awareness of American history is off: 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000. Four times.

Long answer:

1824: Arguably the most pivotal election of all time. John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams) is elected President by the House of Representatives over Andrew Jackson, despite Jackson winning the popular vote by 40,000 votes/11%, winning the Electoral College vote by 15, and carrying 11 states to JQA's seven (Henry Clay and William Crawford had also ran as candidates, and received 37 and 41 Electoral College votes, respectively; Clay carried 3 states and Crawford carried 2).

This has so far been the only election in the history of the United States in which the 12th Amendment has been advocated (12th Amendment mandates that the House of Representatives selects the next President in an election where no candidate receives an Electoral College majority) and the only election in American history where the Electoral College leading vote-getter did not become the POTUS.

It is an incredibly pivotal election in American history because prior to this, the US had seen about twenty years of a one-party reign under the Democratic-Republican Party (the Federalist Party that had been formed under John Adams & Alexander Hamilton and controlled the US government 'til 1801 had subsequently faded away during the Era of Good Feelings and officially disbanded a year before the 1824 election). The results of this election were so contentious that it led to the splitting of the Democratic-Republican party into factions, with Andrew Jackson leading the formation of what would become the early incarnation of the Democratic Party, and JQA (along with Andrew Jackson's political arch-nemesis Henry Clay) would form the Whig Party.

1876: Rutherford B. Hayes defeats Samuel Tilden. Tilden received 51% of the popular vote (to Hayes' 48%). 20 Electoral College votes were contested after the initial result was Tilden getting 184 votes to Hayes' 165. Ultimately, Rutherford B. Hayes was able to finagle his way into the Presidency, winning the election by one (1) Electoral College vote (185-184). Hayes won the Presidency through the informal Compromise of 1877 in which the Republican Party agreed to remove federal troops from the South (the three states counting for the 20 contested EC votes were all southern states [Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana]), ending the period of Reconstruction, in exchange for Hayes succeeding Ulysses S. Grant as the POTUS.

The 1876 election is also the only election in which a Presidential candidate has received a plurality of the popular vote (that is to say, beyond the 50% threshold) and not been elected President.

1888: Benjamin Harrison wins the election over the incumbent Grover Cleveland despite the latter having the upper hand in the popular vote by roughly 100,000 votes. The electoral college vote came down to the state of New York, Grover Cleveland's "home state" (a misnomer, as Cleveland was born, raised, and died in New Jersey but made his political career in New York as the long-serving Governor). Harrison won the state by a margin of ~1%, giving him the EC majority.

Grover Cleveland would then win the 1892 election, making him the only man to serve two non-consecutive terms as POTUS; this ended on a low note, however, as the Panic of 1893 led to the dismissal of the "Bourbon" Democrats and Grover Cleveland in 1896. William Jennings Bryan (later famous for being the defense lawyer in the Scopes-Monkey Trial), who had been running as the Populist Party's candidate, also took on the Democratic Party's nomination and ran as a triple candidate under the Free Silver/Bimetallism economic policy (the Silver Republicans also nominated him). He was roundly defeated by William McKinley. The election of McKinley led to the end of the Third Party System and the onset of the Fourth Party System, leading into the Progressive Era when McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and Teddy Roosevelt (McKinley's Vice President for all of nine months, after having gone two years without a VP) became the President.


And we all know about the 2000 election.

Also, the Electoral College is bullshit.

 

Now I remember, and remembering is half the battle.

 

They already do sway the vote. They don't need to use any tricky subliminal messaging, people (sheeple) believe whatever nonsense the talking head at the moment, or on their favorite station, happens to be saying. They don't attempt to validate info from other sources. Look at the way they treated Ron Paul, 89 seconds of air time in a Presidential debate is shameful.

The media will also broadcast government lies as fact for the government so...

 

Turns out you're correct. Not much of a history buff, here.

But yeah I do agree the electoral college is pointless.

 

The only popular vote I can think of that lost was Al Gore when he went against Bush. The electoral college pretty much votes for who wins majority of your state from what I know, I could be wrong, but essentially it seems like they vote for the popular vote in each state

 

Cool. So you're essentially just arguing what many who advocate third parties argue. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it's quite a well-developed pre-existing notion already.

 

Hmm. I've always been back and forth on wondering if voting is useful or useless, even if the electoral college fucks it up a bit. But as ricky mentioned above, this is basically the viewpoint many have been having who tend to vote third parties, for obvious reasons.

People who tend to vote Dem or Rep probably dont think that its pointless and we have zero say. Especially in Ohio. Even if some of us here think that even that is pointless (of course it depends all on the candidate because voting ron as republican wouldnt be concidered a waste to us anymore)

In my opinion, I say go and vote. Just in case of the off chance that there are enough of us voting for the right candidate (all opinion) but we would need new voters, not the same old ones voting repub and dem. (unless they were conviced that its bullshit which is also an opinion)

Its really difficult to think about since theres a lot of people in this country and we all differ to a certain point and we will all never agree. I still cant say if its important or not since there are a lot of factors.

But to put in example, lets say a lot of the usual non voters become educated on politics (which is why i say this is one of the most important subjects to be caught up on) and the majority of us (even though I dislike majority rule but you cant please everyone) voted gary johnson and he didnt end up getting elected and it went to obama. I would say there should be enough angry people to change this fucked up system. It all relies on we the people, the middle class majority. (again i hate majority rules) but if its for the right cause (all opinion still) then it would be good.

Even after writing all this i still have no fucking clue what im saying. This is like my 10th time rewriting this cause I cant explain it well.










Edit: To sum it all up. Its important to vote in the off chance that enough people have truth on their candidate and that enough people are informed and that we can unite and agree on life and liberty. But with so many people and so much division its tough to say that can ever happen. FUCK

 

stop listening to everyone around you

YOU should make the decision not to vote. if you feel you should not, then dont participate. but when shit goes bad, thn dont say you cant do anything about it.