Voting in US - What's the point?

[Egregious]

Lol @ "what's the point of voting."

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It is truly a joke. How is it a democracy when the decision made by majority of the people doesn't count?

Because it's not a direct democracy... just as the founding fathers intended.

L2differentformsofgovernment.

[Scully]

I dont get why people dont look up stuff like this. You really think all that doom and gloom and never once thought to educate yourself on it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6s7jB6-GoU

[Nathreim]

The solutions to these problems aren't easy or small though.

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Then it sounds to me like Electoral Votes don't even anything out at all. Bigger states still have more voting power. Why would popular vote be worse than that? What am I missing?

Its a compromise just like how congress works. The point of the EC is not to make all states have the same voting power just to help balance it. Big states still have power but smaller states can tip the balance and you cant win without getting some of them.

[Deleted]

More population has deminishing returns on electoral college points. Pure popuation vote would cause entire states to be out voted by califoria alone. (If hypothetically california voted all one way)

Using just Sweden instead of all of Europe is more like a state race electing it's governor.

Yeah I'm still kind of amazed that the US is a country and not smaller countries or single states.

[paralleluniverse]

I'm european so I don't have any personal experience, but from outside point of view it seems to me that US voting is just a show they put up to pretend democracy.

Most countries, particularly in Europe, have a parliamentary system. In such a system, the winner of the popular vote also isn't the real winner.

[Egregious]

The US is a Republic not a Democracy.

I know, it's hard to fathom that we molded after Rome... even considering the eagle is our symbol... or "to the Republic for which it stands."

[Thrive]

Seeing as how the popular vote doesn't count for anything and electoral votes is what wins someone the presidency, what's the point of anyone voting? What's the point of trying to recount votes when it doesn't matter how many votes someone got?

Why do you even need to go vote at all when it's already decided by others you have no control over? Am I missing something?

Voting in the US is suppose to be done on the state level. Most laws were intended to follow the constitution, but be decided by the state. A lot of laws still are. Marijuana laws, gay marriage laws, gun laws, a lot of laws really. So the point of voting is to vote with and in your state to ensure your state has the right to maintain and run itself. States should have more rights, but the feds have taken them over and thus the Electoral College's purpose starts to dwindle.
For example, in Washington state we just passed a law that enabled families of a gun owner to request he be stripped of his rights momentarily if he seemed either mentally unstable or excessively violent.

[Kalis]

Is there any way this has been proven? I mean that electoral votes give smaller states more power than a popular vote would.

See this is why I want to discuss this stuff with actual people. I get actual points of view on something so I can get a broader understanding.

They get more EC votes than their population warrants.

The US is voting for a Head of State, Sweden has thst role split between a monarch and a Prime Minister, if Sweden works the same as the UK system then you don't vote directly for either - no vote at all for the monarch and the Prime Minister is chosen by the ruling party.

[Listrata]

Yeah I'm still kind of amazed that the US is a country and not smaller countries or single states.

That's the key to understanding the electoral college.
Sweden doesn't want to be ruled by what Germany and Turkey wants. But in the Europe as a country analogy. Sweden would be at their mercy. Sweden would represent what is a state in the U.S. With it's own culture, economy, and beliefs in how it should govern itself. But your new over reaching leader elected by more populous countries (states) have now decided how you should educate your people, feed your people and tax your people.

Edit:
Should Sweden have less of a say in that country because it has less people?

[schwarzkopf]

Down ballot is the point.

[shrunken]

How would putting Clinton in be doing the right thing?

Forgive them, they weren't paying attention when the electoral college system was being explained in 6th grade civics. This is all coming as quite a shock.

[Maellas]

Yeah I'm still kind of amazed that the US is a country and not smaller countries or single states.

A few states tried to do that once but the other states said NO. They even had a war about it but most people play it off as a war about slavery.

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I also don't get how you can call it a democracy when only 2 candidates (out of ...) compete in the race. The other candidates have little to no media coverage and we all know, that the media is the factor which decides the winner. Furthermore most people who don't like candidate A don't even think about voting for candidate C, D or E... you HAVE TO vote for B.

That's very wrong. A simple solution (give 2 points for your main choice and 1 point for the 2nd choice) would cope with at least that problem.

They used to give the position of vice president to the candidate with the second most votes. There might only be two major parties in the US but most ideas are generally embraced by one party or the other. So people usually just pick what is most important to them and then side with the party that agrees and just go along with whatever else the party is currently accepting. It is a lot like other multiparty countries that need a number of parties to make up a majority. And as others have pointed out it isn't a true democracy more like a representative democracy or a federal republic. Everyone does get to vote for the President of the United States but I don't get to vote for Supreme Court Justices (that decide how to apply laws) or most of the congressmen and representatives who make the laws I am required to follow.

[TirielWoW]

Yeah I'm still kind of amazed that the US is a country and not smaller countries or single states.

We're a union of states. While, yes, smaller population states don't have as much power as, say, California, any candidate needs a mixture of those smaller and larger states to have a hope to win, because you can't win on California alone.

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I also don't get how you can call it a democracy when only 2 candidates (out of ...) compete in the race. The other candidates have little to no media coverage and we all know, that the media is the factor which decides the winner. Furthermore most people who don't like candidate A don't even think about voting for candidate C, D or E... you HAVE TO vote for B.

That's very wrong. A simple solution (give 2 points for your main choice and 1 point for the 2nd choice) would cope with at least that problem.

There were 12 candidates on the ballot in my state. Other candidates run, but if they don't bother to get on the ballot in other states...

[Floopa]

Well the EC has been around since the birth of the nation and the democrats and republicans were actually backwards back then...

literally in 2012.

[Listrata]

I also don't get how you can call it a democracy when only 2 candidates (out of ...) compete in the race. The other candidates have little to no media coverage and we all know, that the media is the factor which decides the winner. Furthermore most people who don't like candidate A don't even think about voting for candidate C, D or E... you HAVE TO vote for B.

That's very wrong. A simple solution (give 2 points for your main choice and 1 point for the 2nd choice) would cope with at least that problem.

Kindergarten class vote:
I like blue lolly pops and you like green lolly pops. You can vote if you like blue, green, red or yellow. Our class of 35 this year voted they like blue but two other classes with 20 kids each voted for red. 1 voted for green or yellow in all three classes . Over all red was voted for and the blue classroom had to stomach red lolly pops. But so yellow and green voters didn't feel left out we gave them red lolly pops taped to certificates of participation for thier effort. And maybe a smiley stamp.

[TirielWoW]

I honestly would love to see a Jungle Primary instead of the party-based primary system we have right now, but...

[Phlegethon]

It is truly a joke. How is it a democracy when the decision made by majority of the people doesn't count?

And yet, they try to spread that kind of "democracy" to every part of the world.
Fuck yeah.

[Listrata]

And yet, they try to spread that kind of "democracy" to every part of the world.
Fuck yeah.

"That kind of democracy" is within each state. The collection of our 50 separate democratic states makes up a republic for which representation is given in a capitol to represent a nation. Hense the u.s. is a democratic republic.
If the newly formed democratic counties joined together for common gains they also would become a democratic republic.

Edit:
There are other forms of group democracies.

[Shibito]

This was never a problem until killary lost i guess, only california i guess thats gutted.

[Zoranon]

I honestly would love to see a Jungle Primary instead of the party-based primary system we have right now, but...

I dont understand the appeal of this solution. I mean it either ends up as usual, that is to say one rep and one dem, or just two candidates of the same party, which results in voters of the other party not even bothering to vote (and really why should they?) as has happened for example in Senate elections in California this year which had a noticeably lower turnout than the presidential election.