American Elections

[ludwig]

Watching the news coverage I was wondering why they have to queue for miles to cast a vote over there. That must put alot of people off turning out.
In Britain you pretty much stroll up when you like and stick the paper straight in the box. Do they only have 1 polling station per state or something? What happens if polling day finishes and there are still people queueing?
Thanks.

[Gromit]

Election Day in the US is a lot more complex than UK elections.

As well as voting for President, 33 states also Voted for Senators and all states voted on candidates for the House of Representatives. 11 States also voted for State Governors and in some States there was also local elections and referendums.

Thats a lot of voting and paperwork to be done at once.

[Hammer Head]

I disagree. We regularly have two elections on the same day in Britain and it only takes 30 seconds to mark your papers with an X.

I was wondering whether we have more polling stations per head of population than they do. Apparently, in Britain at general elections etc. each polling station would see an average of about 750 people if everyone turned out. There seemed to be thousands at some of the stations in the US.

[Lonnie]

Don't forget, that Labour has introduced Postal Voting, which means that nowadays its less people going to vote personally.

Postal voting is also open to massive fraud, much more than any other system.

[Ethel]

Hammerhead - you can't compare voting in Wales with voting in the USA, the systems are completely different.

Over 30 decisions had to be made on each ballot paper, taking roughly 20 minutes per vote.

They were voting on legislative proposals as well as the presidency, lawmakers and local officials.

[Davethedog]

Steve with all due respect thts rubbish.

They have huge T.V campaigns to get people to register. Up to this election apathy has been as prevelant in the US as it is her.

The reason for the huge turn out this time - Obama.

A lot of people voted for the first time because of him, this includes a lady of 106.

[trt]

They can vote personally a week before as well in the States, unlike here, where we have to post..

[nedflanders]

"The reason for the huge turn out this time - Obama"

And possibly the fact that he spent a staggering �300m on his campaign!!!! McCain spent half of that (which is still a ludacris amount!). You could say (if you dare) that he bought the election.

[libertie]

Not so much buying the election as getting to thousands of people and making them believe them that this time their votes can make a difference!

[pastafreak]

Until this election,apathy has been the winner. The US polling stations were simply not prepared for the sheer volume of people who turned out.
Apparently,if there are still a large number who have not cast their vote at the end of the day,the local authorities can go to the courts to have the hours extended.

[Davethedog]

Ned - That is stunningly naive you know