The differences are explained by the fact that almost all state are winner take all in consideration to electoral votes, and that is what counts in the presidential election. A state can vote 51% for one candidate and 49% for another but all of the electoral votes will be going to the guy with 51% percent of the vote.
We only directly elect senators and representatives.
That is what makes me wonder most. Okey, there have been huuuge debates weather the system for the US President is really democratic and i say it would be much much much more fair when all the single electoral votes were counted instead of giving the candidate the whole state.
What was the idea behind that? That all states should have a unanimous result and it looks more patriotic? Showing the message: When >50% vote A, we all support candidate A?
PS: I think that system (>50 gets all) would work in a small country. But in an extreme huge one like the USA it just doesnt represent the public opinion.
What was the idea behind that? That all states should have a unanimous result and it looks more patriotic? Showing the message: When >50% vote A, we all support candidate A?
The framers of the Constitution didn't want the public to directly elect the president. Originally it would have been Congress that would have appointed the president. Remember that the United States is a Republic, the framers feared the mob and recognized that it could bring oppression.
Here is a quote from James Madison (Considered to be the "Father of the Constitution") about the direct democracies of ancient Greece:
"Such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security of the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
Article Two of the United States Constitution originally established the method of presidential elections, including the electoral college. This was a result of a compromise between those constitutional framers who wanted the Congress to choose the president, and those who preferred a national popular vote.
True. But Obama did win a pretty clear victory in the popular vote as well, winning by more than 7 million votes. That's a considerably larger margin than either Bush term.
