• The Pantser@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    USA doesn’t really elect our leaders either. It’s basically the same, we have a bunch of people that are expected to vote the way their local population votes but they don’t have to, they can vote anyway they want. Popular vote means nothing. Only difference is once elected they get the whole 4 years.

    • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Happy to be wrong since Im not American, but I thought for the presidency it was a ballot that literally had people on them (which are from certain parties / independents)

      • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I’m a different person than you replied to. You are both correct.

        When we, Americans, vote for president we vote for an individual by their name on the ballot. Technically, we’re voting for electors who have been chosen by our candidate. Those electors get to vote for the actual presidency and can technically change their vote (relative to the popular vote), but in many places they would be penalized for doing so. To my knowledge there have been few, possibly no, legal cases which have tested these laws or systems. So in practicality it doesn’t matter.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You are wrong, sadly. While the ballot does have candidates for president, technically what you’re doing is a district election for your presidential delegate, who then casts a vote for the president however they want. Usually this means they vote whatever way the popular vote goes in their district, but sometimes you get a “faithless elector” who legally overrides democracy and votes for a different candidate.

        It’s supremely fucked up.

        Edit: not false elector, it’s faithless elector

        • TheMongoose@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          but sometimes you get a “false elector” who legally overrides democracy and votes for a different candidate.

          Genuine questions - how often does that happen? It can’t be a lot, and it can’t make the deciding vote, right, otherwise the whole system would have been ripped apart by the media long ago…

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      USA doesn’t really elect our leaders either. It’s basically the same…

      It was supposed to be basically the same, back when Electors were chosen by state legislators instead of by popular vote (a choice deliberately made to dilute the power of the public/prevent what the founding fathers saw as ‘mob rule’). Now it’s just a fucked up half-measure midway between a parliamentary system and direct democracy that flat-out doesn’t work right.