Some questions about the US electoral system

[Donut]

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 ]

[VulcanRider]

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.

[Larry_OHF]

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.

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

[Cloudbringer]

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).

[Cerek]

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 Larry 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.

[John D Harris]

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.

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally posted by Donut: 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.

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]

[Cloudbringer]

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.

[Seraph]

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?

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: 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.[/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.

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.


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