According to International IDEA, the United States has almost the lowest voter turnout in the world, ranked a measly 140 out of 163. Perhaps Americans are apathetic, or maybe they’re just concerned their vote is meaningless in the face of America's massive political machine. Can my vote really change the course of politics, or am I just a grain of sand on the massive beach of democracy?
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Every Vote Gets Counted, But Often it Doesn't Really Count
- From Rob Nelson
By Rob Nelson - Activist/Author/TV Personality
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Not True
From your argument: "These super-delegates account for an astounding 20% of the 4119 total Democratic Party delegates. That’s absurd! And that’s why for example, that although Hillary Clinton won more of the popular vote than Barack Obama, she will not receive the nomination. The combination of awarded delegates and super-delegates gives the nomination to Obama."
This is highly misleading at best. You heavily imply that Clinton won more elected delegates than Obama, but he was nominated because he had more delegates. Obama won more elected delegates than Clinton. He didn't win the nomination because of the superdelegates, which is what your "and that's why" statement heavily implies. You didn't outright state it, I assume because you know it's not true, but you did say that she "won more of the popular vote." This is not true by any metric except a few which discount every caucus and include all of Clinton's Michigan votes. Obama gets zero votes from Michigan as he wasn't on the ballot. How is that fair? For an article about fairness, that's pretty ridiculous.
It's also worth noting that primaries are an internal affair in which the parties choose who to include in the election. The primaries aren't elections, and are inherently not "democracy." Why should they be? You have a constitutional right to vote for president, not a right to determine who's on the ballot.
The electoral college is ridiculous in my mind, but it would be virtually impossible to overturn. The small states demanded an unequally strong say in government (overrepresented in the senate AND the house) to join the union, and it's doubtful they'll vote to remove things that give them this extra power... like the electoral college.
- lostlo
September 3, 2008 3:16PM
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Side: Yes
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