Just a few questions that passed though my mind.

How do you register to vote?
I hear that "more Republican voters registered than Democrats" (or vice versa). What are the advantages of registering for one party or the other? What's the point of that?
How many issues did your ballot paper cover?
What type of positions or issues are voted on?
Are you given advance notice of the issues?
If you don't use computers to vote how are the votes counted and collated? Is this done locally or centrally?

More generally:

In the UK we have the Civil Service. They assist the Government in the job of governing. They are career employees and are meant to be politically neutral, there are about 750,000 of them. Does the US have the equivalent and if so what is the highest level of Government that they are involved in?
How many people (roughly) are there in the Bush Cabinet?
Are any of them elected politicians or are they all appointed by the President?
If the Republican party wins the next election is it likely that any of the current Bush administration will stay on to serve under the next President?
Are Bush and Kerry the heads of their respective parties? Or is that a seperate office? Who elects the leaders of the parties?
Does Kerry continue as Senator? If he had been elected President how would his replacement in the Senate be selected and in what timeframe?
If the President and the Vice President die who is next in line to be President?

Did you know that in the UK it is The Queen who picks the Prime Minister?

[ 11-03-2004, 10:07 AM: Message edited by: Donut ]

Go to the Supervisor of Elections office for your area & register. They verify you're eligible to vote (not a felon, for example), and add you to the list of voters for your precinct (local voting area). You select a party affiliation so you can vote in that party's primary election (narrows the field to 1 for that party).

Ballots cover elections at federal (prez/senate/representative), state (senate/representative), and local levels (mayor/town council/sheriff/judges), changes to state constitutions, local charters, local referendums, bond issues...

I voted on 33 different items, from President of the US to local tax collector. Bigger cities would have more...

Sample ballots are published in the newspapers & mailed to every home days before the election, and of course people are running ads for & against everyone and everything for weeks in advance.

Some places use touchscreens to record votes. My area had a paper ballot with little circles to fill in next to each selection. Some places punch a hole instead of filling in the circle (hanging chads!) Each precinct counts their votes & reports the totals to a central office.

I think all non-elected, non-appointed government positions are considered "civil service".

The cabinet includes the Vice-President and executive department heads (Dept. of Interior, Dept. of Agriculture, etc). I think there's 20.

Usually every president likes to pick their own administration, but if they're from the same political party they might get to stay.

Each party has a national chairman, elected from within the party's membership. President Bush & Senator Kerry are "standard-bearers" carrying their party's positions before the voters.

I believe if Senator Kerry loses (I don't know the results right now) he resumes his place in the Senate. If he wins I think the state governor appoints his replacement to finish his term.

This page ( http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_succ.html ) lists the line of succession to become President. One interesting point is that the people in these lower positions might not be eligible to become president, so they get skipped and the next one on the list is chosen.

<font color=skyblue>I registered when I returned from Mexico in 1998 and applied to renew my drivers license at the local DMV.

On another question you asked...I downloaded a sample ballot that had 100% of the real ballot info. Therefore, there were no surprises going in and I already knew what to do.

I am also "non-party affiliated", as I do not care about the parties, I care about what that one person represents at the time. BUT...I registered as Republican because if you are "non-affiliated" there are consequences like not being able to do stuff like vote in certain local things. I don't know the details. I put "R" because at the time when I registered...I sided with what the republicans were saying at the time in 1998. I agree with that choice today that even though "R" does not define 100% of my opinion...it does at least represent more than 50% of it...and I have already told you why I have been instructed to not be "unnafiliated".

FYI>>>I voted many Democratic local leaders in my home state, because they were the only clear choice to me. I am glad to see that one or two of the ones I chose won.</font>

[ 11-03-2004, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

In my state you can call the board of elections or city/town hall and get forms sent to you to register and every time you get a driver's licensce renewed you have the option to register to vote on the forms you fill out for the license.

I recently had to re-register because of my name change when I married and it took about a month for them to send me verification and a signature card to take as ID. (Had to send them all my personal info so they could check, but having done all the paperwork and pics/sigs for my license and Social Security already, it wasn't too bad).

<font color=plum>Voters register as either Democrat or Republican for one of two reasons; 1) they feel very strongly regarding the issues supported by the party of their choice (or strongly against the issues of the other party) and want to make their affiliation with that party public, or 2) they want to vote in the primary elections where the field of candidates for each party is narrowed from several down to one.

There is also the option to register as an Independent, but if you did that you could not vote in any primary elections. But that was changed in my home state several years ago and I changed my party affiliation from Republican to Independent.

As <font color=cyan>Larry</font> mentioned, I prefer to vote on the individual rather than the political affiliation.

On our ballot, there were several positions available in which I had not heard of either candidate. In that case, my wife and I both split our votes between the two parties (NC will allow husband and wife to enter the voting booth together).

On other positions, I voted for the candidate I felt was best for the position - including RE-electing one of Clinton's former Head Staff members to a position in our state gov't.</font>

Each State is a little differant, but basicly you go to the Supervisor of Elections office and fill out the paperwork.

In each State you get to vote in the primary of the party you are registered as. Some States alow you to crossover and vote in the other parties primary.

It depends on the what the politico's have managed to get on the ballot.

Same

Usualy if you take the time to read the local newspaper and pay attention to what is going on.

In most States if not all States it is done on the local/county level, some use computers, scanners, some hand count, or use counting machines. It depends on what the county supervisor of elections has decided to buy with the budget the county gov't has given them.

I believe it is the Speaker of the House.

All of the other questions have been pretty well answered. Things do vary from state to state.

I believe I had to provide proof of citizenship (a photocopy of my birth certificate worked) to register. [img]smile.gif[/img]

It is the Speaker of the House.

I'm registered with a party in order to vote in the primaries, but I don't vote along any particular party lines. In fact my ballots this year were about an even mix of the two main parties for national/local elections. As others said before, I vote for the candidate, not his/her party affiliation.

There will probably be a few who leave. I have a feeling that Bush is going to feel much less of a need to listed to his fathers old friends.

I believe it is the Speaker of the House.</font>[/QUOTE]The Speaker of the House doesn't actually become president, he mearly acts as president. It isn't a particulary important point unless you happen get in an argument with someone about who was president on March 4th 1849, or something very strange happens at some point in the future.

<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">
Seraph, I think those of the Bush administration that leave will mostly be the left over Clinton Appointees. I will bet that most of the Bush appointees will either stay or change positions witin the administration.
</font>

[ 11-03-2004, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

There will probably be a few who leave. I have a feeling that Bush is going to feel much less of a need to listed to his fathers old friends.

Quote:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />If the President and the Vice President die who is next in line to be President?

I believe it is the Speaker of the House.</font>[/QUOTE]The Speaker of the House doesn't actually become president, he mearly acts as president. It isn't a particulary important point unless you happen get in an argument with someone about who was president on March 4th 1849, or something very strange happens at some point in the future. </font>[/QUOTE]According to various news reports, Ashcroft is likely to be replaced which is a plus but Powell has told friends that he is leaving which a major minus. Rumsfeld will likely be kept on - changing sec of defense in midst of a war is a bad idea. Rice may be moved to a different cabinet post. That's about all the skinny I've heard.

Originally posted by Donut:
Just a few questions that passed though my mind.

How do you register to vote?
In the good ol' days you had to show up at your county courthouse. Nowadays you can do it at the department of motor vehicles while you get your driving or car license.

I hear that "more Republican voters registered than Democrats" (or vice versa). What are the advantages of registering for one party or the other? What's the point of that?
In some states, only those who are registered as member of a particular party can vote in their primary elections. Other states have "open primaries", where you can vote in whichever party's primary you wish.

How many issues did your ballot paper cover?
President, Senator, Congressman, State Senator, State Representative, County Coroner, District Attorney, Circuit Clerk, Circuit Court Judge, County Board member, several judicial retention issues.

What type of positions or issues are voted on?
Occasionally we get referendums on the ballot, usually dealing with taxes. These are usually by the city or the school board.

Are you given advance notice of the issues?
certainly

If you don't use computers to vote how are the votes counted and collated? Is this done locally or centrally?

Our county switched from punchcards to optical scanners this year. The ballots are tabulated at the county clerk's office.

[ 11-05-2004, 02:18 AM: Message edited by: DBear ]

Originally posted by Donut:
More generally:
In the UK we have the Civil Service. They assist the Government in the job of governing. They are career employees and are meant to be politically neutral, there are about 750,000 of them. Does the US have the equivalent and if so what is the highest level of Government that they are involved in?
We have them for federal, state, county, and local offices.

How many people (roughly) are there in the Bush Cabinet?
I'll have to check my almanac for the exact number.

Are any of them elected politicians or are they all appointed by the President?
They are chosen by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

If the Republican party wins the next election is it likely that any of the current Bush administration will stay on to serve under the next President?
Depends on how long they want to stick around. The Secretary of Transportation was a holdover from the Clinton administration.

Are Bush and Kerry the heads of their respective parties? Or is that a seperate office? Who elects the leaders of the parties?
The parties choose 'chairmen' to run the parties. They are not elected. Bush and Kerry were chosen as candidates by the state primaries and caucuses.
Way back when, the conventions used to do this and gave rise to the phrase 'smoke-filled room'. But now the only drama left at the conventions is Vice-Presidential candidate selection.

Does Kerry continue as Senator? If he had been elected President how would his replacement in the Senate be selected and in what timeframe?
Kerry does because he still has 2 years left (might be 4, I'm not certain). However, Edwards' term is up. The deal is that Senators have 6-year terms, but to prevent massive turnover, a third of them come up for election every two years.
If Kerry had won, a replacement would've been selected by the state governor, who isn't necessarily of the same party. They generally stay on until the next opportune election.

If the President and the Vice President die who is next in line to be President?
The Presidential succession is spelled out in the Constitution. The Speaker of the House would be next, in this case Dennis Hastert of Illinois.

Did you know that in the UK it is The Queen who picks the Prime Minister?
I always thought it was the majority party who selected the PM. Am I correct that the PM is always a member of their ranks?

You are quite correct. And the Queen doesn't really 'pick' - her choice is constrained by the constitution to choose a leader who will 'command support in the Houses of Commons' (paraphrased, but that's the rough idea). So she'll always pick the leader of the strongest party.

If he abdicates/dies etc, the Queen can either nominate a successor or call elections, but in practice this is done by consulting all leaders of the parties. It is in the interests of monarchs to make sound political decisions in these cases, and indeed, on the couple of occassions in the first half of the 20th century when this occurred, the Kings at the time acquitted themselves extremely well.


My own question if I may, about the electoral college system. Say the state of Florida commands 30 electoral votes and the Democrats won 66% of the vote and Republicans 33%.

Would the democrats receive all 30 electoral votes? Or just 20? My understanding is that they receive all, except for in two exceptional states - is this correct?

Also, (sorry if this seems really silly) but are there 'electoral college voters' in that each of those 30 electoral votes would have a voter behind them on some sort of committee in that state?

[ 11-05-2004, 08:33 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">Shamrock, the answer to you last question is "It depends on the state." Some states divvy up the electoral votes, others it's "Winner Take All". OUr electoral colleage system really needs to be revamped. But you have to remember that the individual states have some amount of rights to do things their own way as they see fit.</font>

<font color=plum>In the majority of states, it is "Winner takes all". But there are a few exceptions. A few states (maybe 2 or 3) do divide their electoral vote based on the popular vote...giving the larger percentage to the candidate that won the popular vote and the smaller percentage to the losing candidate. I don't remember if the percentages are pre-determined or if they actually try to reflect the actual percentage of votes each candidate won, but I'm fairly certain the number is pre-determined ahead of time.

And, YES, there really IS a "live voter" for every single electoral vote in each state. Each state chooses representatives (called electorals, appropriately enough) and these men/women physically cast their own votes for President based on the results of the general election in there state. Technically, President Bush has NOT been "voted in" yet, because the electoral representatives don't meet to cast their vote until a couple of weeks after the general election. And while they are supposed to cast their one vote in accordance to the results from their state, there have been occasions where an electoral representative refused to do that and voted for the other candidate. The law provides repercussions for such an action, since they are directly violating their express purpose, but it usually just means they lose their position as an electoral representative and their vote is made "null and void" or is counted for the candidate that was supposed to receive it anyway.

Do a Google for "Electoral College" and you'll get several hits. I found that many were just articles bashing the system and screaming that it should be done away with entirely, but if you are patient and persistant, you can actually find some objective and informative info on it as well.</font>

I believe it is the Speaker of the House.

</font>[/QUOTE]<font color=plum>Really??? I thought it was supposed to be Alexander Haig. [img]graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/kidding.gif[/img] </font>

Thank you to all that answered my questions.

Yep, thanks Cerek, that was very helpful.