Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (5477)	11/10/2000 6:56:34 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10042

Well, the reason we have an electoral college is to prevent a minority of highly populated states from dominating over less populated states. Especially if, for some reason, voter turnout is greater in this densely populated states, while less in the "rural" states. There is QUITE the potential that a highly active voter base in, say NY and CA, could dominate smaller states, who might feel excluded or unrepresented in the popular vote. It also would permit politicians to exclude smaller states during their campaigns, focusing instead on the more populated states. Too bad Hillary fails to realize that we're a Representative Republic, and NOT a pure democracy where popular votes decided the elections. There's a reason that our founders chose such a system over a unicameral parliamentary system infested with no-confidence votes, fallen governments, and political coalitions of convenience. Just look at Israel, where Sharon and the Likud party are threatening to overthrow Barak's government in the midst of one of that nation's most critical periods of its recent history. Can you imagine the ramifications, if during the gulf war, suddenly the democrats had attempted to overthrow the Bush administration? Of if the Republicans had attempted to overthrow the Clinton administration through a "no-confidence" vote, which would have spurred new elections? Hillary just doesn't get it... (or she does and is trying to twist it to her advantage).

To: KLP who wrote (5477)	11/10/2000 7:20:37 PM
From: jeffrey rainey	Respond to of 10042

Hey Ron...thought you might enjoy this! Kids find contested ballot to be child's play 11/10/00 By Don Walker The Times It’s a ballot that perplexed Florida voters but was no match for the wits of first- and fourth-graders at Stockwell Elementary School in Bossier City. Disillusioned and upset by the lingering chaos of this week’s presidential election, fourth-grade teacher Lisa Burns pulled a sample of the controversial Palm Beach County, Fla., ballot off the Internet on Thursday. She then put her class of 9- and 10-year-olds to the test. "I gave them a ballot and had them take a blue marker to vote for Al Gore and a red marker to vote for George Bush. Then I had them put their name on the bottom of the ballot and turn it in." Turns out this election was mere child’s play. Not one of the 22 students present in class Thursday was confused by the ballot. Each one was marked without error. Well, if a fourth-grader could do it, how about a first-grader? Down the hall in Stacey Robinson’s class, the ballot was handed out to 6- and 7-year-olds. Robinson used an overhead projector to point out Gore’s name, then asked the class of 24 students to find his bubble on the punch-card ballot. "It wasn’t a vote," Robinson said. "I just wanted to experiment to see if they could find the correct bubble." When the ballots were turned in, 19 of the first-graders marked the correct bubble for Gore, three picked Buchanan’s bubble, one picked Bush’s and one marked the bottom bubble for the "Natural Law" party. "If a first-grader can choose the correct bubble, there’s no legitimate claim. Anyone could have done it," Robinson said. "A grown adult who took any time at all could find it." Still, even in a first-grade classroom, vote tabulations were the subject of protest and controversy. "I thought we were voting," Brady McCoy, 6, of Haughton grumbled after he was told to find and punch the "Gore" bubble. "I wanted to vote for George Bush!" Regards Jeff/Rainman