President -2

[Guest guest]

Hi Mani--

 

>I noted well, but you have said nothing about the two exceptions. What

happens

>there?

 

Those two states (Maine and Nebraska) select their electors by popular vote,

each of whom are pledged to a certain candidate. Maine gets four electoral

votes, Nebraska, five. (I didn't just happen to know that; I looked it up.)

So, if Nebraska were to elect three Mr. A electors and two Mr. B electors,

then the electoral college would transmit just that: three for Mr A and two

for Mr B, as opposed to all five for one candidate as happens in the other

states.

 

>How can there be more than two candidates in a two-party system? Or is a

third

>party theoretically possible?

 

It's more than theoretically possible. This year, there are six parties

that I know of: Dems and Reps, of course, along with Green, Reform,

Libertarian, and Socialist. In some states, there are probably even more.

 

The election has been thrown into the House of Representatives only once, in

1824. There were four candidates then, and the electoral college did not

produce a majority for anyone, so the House elected John Quincy Adams, who

only had 31% of the popular vote, and only 32% of the electoral college

vote. The man with the popular vote was Andrew Jackson, who received 41% of

the popular vote and 38% of the electoral college vote. So, it's possible!

 

In that election, the two other-party candidates took about 12% of the vote

each, creating what is called in American politics "spoilers," making it

difficult for any one person to receive a majority.

 

The popular vote candidate has only lost two other times: In 1876 and 1888.

Both races were close.

 

It is QUITE conceivable that we won't know the outcome of this election for

many, many weeks. I read on the Associated Press wire that California has

so many absentee ballots it could take several days before they know how the

election turned out, since it's running close in California.

 

Try this on for size: If ties throw the election into Congress, and they

can't agree on a presidential successor by Inauguration Day, then the

Succession of Powers Act kicks in and the new president becomes ... get this

.... the Speaker of the House--a representative who only received public

votes from the voters of his home district.

 

>PS: Your letter is one I shall never erase!

 

 

You are very kind. Thank you.

 

jpd

[Guest guest]

Please see my comments below

 

> I noted well, but you have said nothing about the two exceptions.

What happens

> there?

 

Two states Nebraska and Maine also award one elector for each

congressional district(this is to boost voter turnout), so if

candidate A wins the whole state of Nebraska and leads in one

congressional district he gets 5+1=6 electors and if candidate B lead

in the other congressional district he wins 1 elector. This is unlike

48 other states where winner takes all.

 

> How can there be more than two candidates in a two-party system? Or

is a third

> party theoretically possible?

 

There are more than two parties in US - Democrats, Republicans, Green

Party, Reform Party, Natural Law, Liberterian etc. but the electoral

college and the winner takes all limits other parties, in 1992 Mr.

Perot won 19% of the vote but not a single elector so the system

discourages parties/individuals wo do not have a broad appeal across

the country

 

Hope this helps

Ravi

 

P.S Sorry for this non-astrology post, I hope this will be the last

pertaining to this topic.