US Presidential elections

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CNN's coverage with John King working the Magic Wall is good viewing

Looks like Bill Kristol of the Neo Cons on Fox has conceeded, looking very glum when factoring in the house and senate races for two consecutive elections.
 

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McCain was hoping to pinch that one IIRC.

One thing that really does surprise me is the long queues at the polling stations. Australians would be up in arms if we had to line up for hours. It's incredible that the most powerful country in the world and a major democracy can't make voting more convenient for it's citizens! :confused:

I know that the turnout is supposed to be higher than normal but there were queues even for those voting days ago.
 
Toots Hibbert said:
McCain was hoping to pinch that one IIRC.

One thing that really does surprise me is the long queues at the polling stations. Australians would be up in arms if we had to line up for hours. It's incredible that the most powerful country in the world and a major democracy can't make voting more convenient for it's citizens! :confused:

I know that the turnout is supposed to be higher than normal but there were queues even for those voting days ago.
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The more I see of the US on CNN and Fox News, the more I have realised it seems to be a third world country for average people. That is one example.
 
Trouble for the USA is that they vote on a lot more than the president on election day. There is the house of reps maybe the senate in it's your states turn, maybe state governors are up for election as might state house and sta te senate races, state constitutional referendums, citizen initiated referendum proposals, some states have 8 to 10 initiative questions, judges, sheriffs, county boards, mayors etc etc.

The yanks do most of their voting on the 1 day either in the presidential year or in the 2nd year between presidential terms. It's a lot different to here and they vote on a lot more positions than we do.

My Canadian mate in Dallas voted early and told me he had to cast 21 different votes. He voted on about 10 different judicial positions. He voted electronically for the first time as he become a US citizen 18 months ago and said it took him 10 minutes to go thru the different ballots.

They had a look at the ballots Obahma had to vote on and wondered why he took 15 minutes. They showed the ballots he had to vote on and as it was electronic voting they scrolled down two or three screens. It looked like he had to vote in over 30 ballots. The commentator couldn't believe it and she said no wonder it took him so long to vote.
 
CNN projects Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin for Obama; Wyoming, North Dakota and Alabama for McCain.

174 - 49
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Trouble for the USA is that they vote on a lot more than the president on election day. There is the house of reps maybe the senate in it's your states turn, maybe state governors are up for election as might state house and sta te senate races, state constitutional referendums, citizen initiated referendum proposals, some states have 8 to 10 initiative questions, judges, sheriffs, county boards, mayors etc etc.

The yanks do most of their voting on the 1 day either in the presidential year or in the 2nd year between presidential terms. It's a lot different to here and they vote on a lot more positions than we do....
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That's a good point but it must be similar at each presidential election so it should be possible to have in place sufficient facilities to prevent the long line ups IMO.
 
Geoffa32 said:
The more I see of the US on CNN and Fox News, the more I have realised it seems to be a third world country for average people. That is one example.
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Fair call. The USA doesn't care as much for someone who doesn't make it or falls down the ladder. Australia at the end of the 1800's and early 1900's was an experiment in democracy and was able to draw the best of Europe and North America and tried to reject the worse parts of what they saw in the other countries. We succeed in a lot more areas than we failed in building a fair and equal society. If you are rich, highly skilled, highly talented and highly driven to succeed the USA is better than Oz. If you are in the average category there isn't much difference. If you are below average, Oz is a lot fairer society. On so many matters the USA at the extreme ends of the spectrum, is a lot more extreme than Oz.

With the voting system there are two big differences compared to Oz. First is the voting days. All USA voting is done on the first Tuesday of November in even years. That's why as I said before you have to cast up to 20 or 30 votes on one day compared to our usual 2 ballots.

Secondly the US Constitution gives control of federal voting back to the states. Because of their paranoia of central control dating back to the revolution the states have control and therefore open to inconsistencies and dodginess like you had in Florida in 2000. They have a federal electoral commission but it doesn't have the poewers and doesn't coordinate the way the Australian Electoral Commission and State Electoral Commissions in Oz do. Also the fact it is compulsory to vote in Oz, and by law it is the citizens obligation to register themselves whenever they move and it is an easy process ie go to the post office and pick up a form, means the whole process in Oz is a lot easier to control than in the USA.
 
Funny how different the coverages are. Fox news are all downtrodden and sombre. CNN is excited and boyant.

How cool are those giant touch screen with maps. Makes a GIS geek like me wet my pants.

oh yeah, GO THE BLUE TIDE! This is better than footy.
 

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Toots Hibbert said:
That's a good point but it must be similar at each presidential election so it should be possible to have in place sufficient facilities to prevent the long line ups IMO.
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True, but when you have electronic voting machines for the first time with twenty odd questions plenty of people take their time to use it and make mistakes. You imagine some old people who are used to 50 or 60 years of paper ballots voting in 20 questions for the first time. My mate made mistake and he had to revote for about 8 ballots in one section.

That's why 30 odd states introduced early voting whereby you didn't have to go thru the usual absent voting requirements. To try to reduce the election day queues. Also as voting isn't compulsory, if you have a surge in some polling areas say from the usual low 50's to high 70's percentage turnout, then some polling places may not have put on enough staff to cope with the surge.
 
morell said:
Funny how different the coverages are. Fox news are all downtrodden and sombre. CNN is excited and boyant.

How cool are those giant touch screen with maps. Makes a GIS geek like me wet my pants.

oh yeah, GO THE BLUE TIDE! This is better than footy.
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Yep very different coverage.

As I said before, that Magic Wall as it is called, is brilliant. John King on CNN is great using it.

Here's a story about the invetor of the Magic Wall I looked up on CNN on the weekend.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/04/magic.wall/index.html
 
morell said:
Ohio to Obama. According to CNN.

Race is practically over.
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Yep, that would crack open the red block in the southeast of the map from the 2004 results. Florida is still holding for Obama too, 3% lead with 57% counted.
 
morell said:
New Mexico for the Man now.

Far out. McCain is getting smashed!

199-78
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There's still California, Oregon and Washington State to come with a total of 73 electoral college votes.They were all strongly favouring Obama in the opinion polling. That adds up to a 272 vote total which is more than the required number. Obama surely must have the election in the bag.
 
Toots Hibbert said:
There's still California, Oregon and Washington State to come with a total of 73 electoral college votes.They were all strongly favouring Obama in the opinion polling. That adds up to a 272 vote total which is more than the required number. Obama surely must have the election in the bag.
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oh he is home. Its a matter of how much.

207-89 now.
 
Obama's polling well in Colorado. 13% lead with over 1/3 of votes counted.

Leading in Montana and Nevada too, but very early.

Democrats have the Senate and are closing on the House.

220 - 135 called so far by CNN in the presidential race.
 
Anyone seen CNN use their hologram graphics yet? They interview people and their reporters from out in the field and put a hologram of them in the studio about 2 metres away from the inteviewer to make it look like they are there in the studio. Snazzy technology to watch. Not sure if really adds anything, but it does look snazzy.
 
The CNN website is giving Obame 297 electoral college votes. Four states so far have switched from Republican to Democrat. None have gone the other way.
 
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