Election Question

[Lavindathar]

Not completely familiar with how this works....

You vote tomorrow. Is this the whole country? Or just certain states (so more than one day).

How long are the polls open for?

When do we get confirmation Obama has won?

[Bungleau]

To respond simply: The elections take place tomorrow for the entire country. There's a nine hour difference between New York and Hawaii, making for a long, long "day".

Some people vote in advance. I did, because I'm in West Virginia tomorrow, a good three or four states away, and will not be able to vote in person tomorrow. Ex-pats and military stationed overseas can also cast absentee ballots; they also need to be cast before the official end date of the elections.

Polls vary... I think there are minimum hours, generally from around 7AM to around 8PM. I believe anyone in line at the close will be allowed to vote, even if it ends up way after 8.

The winner is whoever gets 270 electoral votes. That's determined by the number of states he carries, not the number of voters. If a state's count is close, it may be recounted. That can lead to a delay in determining the winner.

We'll see what happens towards the end of the day tomorrow...

[VulcanRider]

The whole country votes tomorrow. Polls are open from 7a.m. to 7 p.m. News reports aren't supposed to announce totals for a state until after the polls close for that state -- that caused a headache in Florida in the last presidential election since a piece of the state extends into a different time zone, and Floridians who hadn't voted yet started hearing that the state was "officially" won by the Democrats.

I think we'll see a winner declared before the 11pm news, and you're probably right about who...

Edit: B's right -- some places open as early as 6 and some stay open until 8, but anyone already in line at closing time will still get to vote...

[dplax]

I'm eagerly awaiting the moment when the whole election gets off of the daily news. It's way too long...

[ElfBane]

Here is an interactive map showing the states poll closing times. The map time is Eastern Standard time, which is GMT -5.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/poll.closing/

[Felix The Assassin]

Here in the Bluegrass state polls open at 6:00 AM and close at 6:00 PM ET, or 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM CT, with whomever still in line will be brought inside the polling station and allowed to cast their vote.

Two things:
1. After the CNN special over the weekend, some folks, like my sister and her high earning friends have realized the Barack Hussein Obama tax plan will directly affect them harder then what has been lead to believe. Furthermore, they now understand that will only last for one year, then the tax rate must increase exponentially nationwide in order to keep the nation afloat.
1a. They have learned that the McCain health care tax is: For instance, a family earning $50,000 who had an expensive $15,000 health care plan would actually pay less tax under McCain's health tax credit plan. Their income tax before credits would rise by $2,250. But they would get a $5,000 credit that would more than offset that higher tax before credits.

These are things that I have known, but have had a hell of a time trying to get other's to understand. I CNN for this timely release!

2. The Electoral College does not vote until 15 DEC 2008.
2a. If the state electoral casters follow the popular vote the popular candidate wins.
2b. If for instance the state electoral casters follow party hard lines, the popular vote candidate may not receive the full votes to win.
2c. If the popular elected candidate becomes deceased prior to the Electoral College vote, then three courses of action may transpire, the VP becoming elected is not the first or the most selected COA.

[Larry_OHF]

I have a question about the voting. I know that we're actually allowed to "write in" a candidate if we do not like any of the current runners, and of course there are others running that are officially on the ballot that the news does not care to cover, like the socialist party leader. Now...you can do that for president slot, but can you do it for VP? My wife said that so many people are complaining about Palin, but what's to complain about since we can write in whatever VP we want, and I know that any of the previous candidates that had been running for president would make outstanding VPs...

What I am getting at is, is my wife right? Can we vote for whatever VP we want by writing them in like we can for president, if we do not agree with the VP? If so, I am going for Romney.

[Bungleau]

Hmmm... from my dim memory of my ballot last week, I voted for Pres and VP as a team, not individually. Don't know what will happen with a write-in...

As for the electoral college, we've discussed that a couple of times already. Death of candidate, faithless electors... strange things can happen. Only a few states allow the splitting of electors... not all.

[Lavindathar]

Originally Posted by Bungleau The winner is whoever gets 270 electoral votes. That's determined by the number of states he carries, not the number of voters. If a state's count is close, it may be recounted. That can lead to a delay in determining the winner.

Ok, this lost me.

In England, "counties" are our versions of states. But on a much smaller scale. They are not important, just a different region.

You guys are quite serious about your states, with famous governers and all that.

So in England, the country votes, and its simply a matter of the most people wins. Counties don't matter.

I think for getting parliment seats for ministers etc we have a similar system, but Im not sure how this works either.

But I don't get this 270 electoral votes? How can 100million people (or w/e) be turned into 270 electoral votes?

You have 50 states, so I cant see a link there.


So, is it in simple terms -

To win a state, you must get the majority % of votes in that state. And then the majority % of states wins?

I don't get the 270 electoral votes thing.

Sorry for sounding a dumb ass, but im actually interested, and I can't for the life of me work out how you guys do it.

Plus you have all these pre-elections or w/e in states and polls and all this...we don't.

We have a vote lol.

[Jaradu]

Basically,

Each state is worth a certain amount of 'points'
More populated states are worth more 'points'
A state is won by a plurality vote
First to 270 wins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elector...(United_States)