Idiot's guide to the US electoral system

Why not just read about it online?

for example - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2236285.stm

I don't understand a great deal about it myself. I know that the votes cast on Tuesday don't directly elect the president, IYSWIM but that they use an electoral college system.

Thanks Nick, I shall have a look...I did google, but the first couple I read were rubbish.

Roob - I'm a bit ? about the huge gap in my knowledge.

Here's a bit on how the electoral college system works also from BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3736580.stm

Thanks R, that's what I am hoping to learn more about.

It hurts my brain when I try to understand why the electoral vote doesn't reflect the popular vote though.

I suppose it's cos as it says in that link except in 2 states it's a "winner takes all" thing for the votes in the electoral college. Hence why the Florida thing was so critical in the 2000 election, as it meant that although GB only got a teeny majority of votes there, he got all 25 of the state's votes in the electoral college and not just 13 to him/12 to AG as it would maybe have been split if the votes to the electoral college were done in proportion to the actual votes cast by the electorate. So if you get huge majorities in the smaller states you may only still get a few votes to the EC, whereas you may get tiny losses in the large states but get absolutely no votes from that state [brain explodes]

?

My brain has just joined yours all over the monitor.

I *should* get this stuff...I studied law ffs ?

Does anyone know why Maine and Nebraska don't have the winner takes all thing?

Me too...but to be fair, it was Scottish law, not US ?

I think a basic understanding is fine. You'll probably understand more about the US electoral system than the average Brit understands about our own one ?

Maine and Nebraska both use an alternative method of distributing their electoral votes, called the Congressional District Method. Currently, these two states are the only two in the union that diverge from the traditional winner-take-all method of electoral vote allocation.

With the district method, a state divides itself into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. The winner of each district is awarded that district’s electoral vote, and the winner of the state-wide vote is then awarded the state’s remaining two electoral votes.

This method has been used in Maine since 1972 and Nebraska since 1996, though since both states have adopted this modification, the statewide winners have consistently swept all of the state’s districts as well. Consequently, neither state has ever split its electoral votes.

Although this method still fails to reach the full ideal of one-man one-vote, it has been proposed as a nationwide reform for the way in which Electoral votes are distributed.

? Thanks for making me feel better

I have absolutely no idea Presumably because how the states elect electors to the EC is a matter of state rather than federal law so it's open to them to have variations.

All we need to know I guess, is first man to 270 wins. And that hopefully that man is Obama.

If you want a clearer understanding, don't follow the link from that BBC webpage I posted to the actual Electoral College website. It appears to be the most confusing thing I've ever read.