this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

So in practicality it doesn’t matter.

The Republicans are working on changing that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Appreciate the clarification! thanks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

It happens frequently enough there’s a Wikipedia page:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector

Looks like it happened in 2000, 2004, and 2016.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector

As of the 2020 election, there have been a total of 165 instances of faithlessness, 90 of which were for president, while 75 were for vice president. They have never swung an election, and nearly all have voted for third party candidates or non-candidates, as opposed to switching their support to a major opposing candidate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Ah right the electoral college and that sort of thing. Thanks!