Election in the USA

Today when we talked about the election system in the states and I noticed that I never knew much about it. It is a really complex system and I do not think that a lot of people in the states know how it really works. In the US the presidential candidate with the most votes wins the election. It is already enough if he has a few more votes than the other candidate. this is a big difference to other election systems like the one we have in Germany. There the candidate needs a total majority, which means that at least 51% of the votes have to be for one candidate. If that does not happen in first round there is a second round in which the two candidates with the most votes compete against each other and finally the one with the total majority wins.

An important thing in the states are the caucuses. I found a definition on the internet: " a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy" I actually never heard about that before I read the book by Joe Trippi "The Revolution will not be televised" http://www.amazon.de/Revolution-Will-Not-Televised-Everything/dp/006156107X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1245161134&sr=8-1 This book really explains a lot about the election system especially what happens behind the scenes. I really enjoyed reading it.

However, coming back to the system. I actually did not find a really good link that explains the system... but I found a funny video on youtube that explains the system :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkqEdlRDKfo

I wonder how many people in the states do actually know how the system works. It is funny that people vote for the candidate they want to be president on their ballot paper but actually the votes come from the electors and not from the people directly. For me that does not sound like democracy...

well, if I have time someday maybe I will read more about it :-)

Something funny at the end!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB5YzlcAHt0&feature=PlayList&p=5CD673C0B0D48412&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39