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Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto
The ability for each state (let alone each county, which is news to me) to decide how to implement their own voting systems sounds to me like a recipe for disaster.
I don't understand why you can't choose a consistent national system.
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We're kind of stuck with a really old Constitution for better or worse. It gives the right to each state to decide how they allot their electors. There doesn't actually have to be a general election at all. It wasn't all that long ago that the national senators from my state were elected by the state representatives. Past elections have excluded minorities, women, the poor, and non-landowners. I actually expect to see steps backward, to more indirect elections, in the near future as a move to consolidate power with one party or out of fear of the majority's will.
From Article II:
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Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
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To say, at this point, that the elections are deliberately being muddled to create an atmosphere of chaos in which they might more easily cease power would be conspiracy theory. We'll see in a few days if there's any evidence of this. Bush chose to not follow all of the recommendations of his own election commission that was specifically brought together to avoid another debacle like Florida was in 2000. Wait and see.
