[SwF] Fwd: Who Gets Your Vote?

--- In [email protected], "Nauman Khan"
<naumankhan@b...> wrote:
                            BISMILLAH IREHMAN NIRAHIM

Assalamualikum,

By
<http://knowledgenews.net/cgi-bin/moxiebin/bm_tools.cgi?author=1;a=472;s=10;
site=1> Steve Sampson
Posted Friday, September 24, 2004

KnowledgeNews is confidently predicting that no one--that's right, no
one--will be voting for President Bush or Senator Kerry today. How can
that
be? Because actual presidential picking is left to the Electoral College.




 Image source: National Archives and Records Administration
<http://www.knowledgenews.net/picturethis/electoraltally.jpg> 	


Official Electoral College tally, election 1800


Here's how America's Electoral College actually works, and where it came
from. First, the six steps for picking presidents by proxy:

Step 1: Each state gets a number of electors equal to its number of U.S.
representatives (which is proportional to its population), plus its number
of U.S. senators (which is two).

Step 2: Before the popular election, the candidates supply election
officials in each state with lists of people pledged to support them.
These
people are, in effect, candidates for the Electoral College.

Step 3: On Election Day, voters cast ballots for the slate of electors in
their state who have pledged to support their preferred presidential
candidate.

Step 4: The slate of electors that gets the most votes in a particular
state
wins all of that state's Electoral College spots--except in Maine and
Nebraska, where two electors are chosen by statewide vote and tallies
within
congressional districts decide the rest.

Step 5: On the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the selected
electors meet in their state capitals and cast votes for president and
vice
president. At least one of their votes must be for a candidate not from
their home state (one reason the two candidates on party tickets never
call
the same state home). Then they ship their ballots off to the president of
the U.S. Senate.

Step 6: On January 6, the president of the Senate reads the Electoral
College votes before both houses of Congress. As long as one candidate
receives an absolute majority of the votes (that's half the total,
plus one
or more), that candidate is declared president. If no candidate
receives an
absolute majority, the U.S. House of Representatives chooses the president
from the top three contenders.

Why the Founders Went to Electoral College

Now, wouldn't a purely popular vote be a lot simpler? Sure, but that's
forgetting some crucial history. The Electoral College was born during the
final days of America's Constitutional Convention, when the country's
creators alighted on a presidential selection process that neatly
negotiated
some of the thorniest issues they faced.

As always, the framers had to balance the concerns of small states against
those of larger ones. In this case, they also had to ensure that the
separate branches of government stayed separate.

The latter need ruled out one option--having the Congress choose the
president. Another option--electing the president by direct popular
vote--had its own drawbacks. First, direct elections would have
favored the
"favorite sons" of big states like Virginia over those of small states
like
Connecticut, and the favorite sons of small states weren't about to
sign on
to a system that put their states at a disadvantage.

Just as important, national campaigns would have been extremely
difficult in
1787. The country lacked adequate means of transportation and
communication
to support them. Anyway, most of the founders didn't like the idea of
campaigning. They believed that "the office should seek the man," not vice
versa. Some also doubted the average voter's ability to make a smart
presidential pick.

The Collegiate Solution

The Electoral College, like most of the American system, emerged as a
compromise. To address big state versus small state issues, the framers
built on their previous compromise regarding the design of
Congress--giving
each state a number of electors equal to its number of representatives
plus
its number of senators.

To hedge against home-state favoritism, they ruled that one vote per
elector
had to go to an out-of-state candidate. To maintain a balance of power
between federal and state governments, they allowed the states to
determine
for themselves how to choose their electors.

Of course, the founders never imagined how the system would develop,
especially after political parties inserted themselves into the process.
Many hoped an Electoral College consisting of each state's best and
brightest would simply convene and choose the best man for the job,
with no
need for anything so degrading as campaigning.                    

                                               Allah Hafiz...

__________________________________________________________________
Nauman Khan
ICQ#: 43403799

Mobile#:03036661332

naumankhan.itgo.com

+   <http://wwp.icq.com/43403799> More ways to contact me 

naumankhan@b...

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                                          yarhmkAllah
__________________________________________________________________
--- End forwarded message ---






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