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It’s a huge day in the United States: the biggest day in the primary election season, “Super Tuesday”. It’s fascinating that there can be such huge swings in voter opinion from state to state. (Compare the Republican results between Massachusetts and Arkansas.) My inner stats geek wants to crunch the numbers in greater detail. One thing’s certain, though: Google does a fine job of presenting the results in a readable format.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s primary won’t be held until May. (And I can’t vote in it, anyhow, because I’m registered as “not a member of a party”.)
This article is about Odds and Ends Tuesday, 5th February 2008 (by J.D. Roth)
February 5th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
JD, why is an article on supersizing your meal related to this? Weird.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Because it’s super. I should check to see if that plugin has been upgraded, shouldn’t I? At Get Fit, I just updated all plugins to their current versions today. I haven’t done that at GRS ever.
By the way, how long does “election season” last in Canada, Andrea?
How about those of you in Australia? The U.K.? Elsewhere?
More than one year out of every four is devoted to Presidential campaigns in the U.S…
February 5th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
We don’t have an “election season” here in Canada, since we don’t have fixed election dates. Instead, the party in power is only allowed to stay in power for a fixed amount of time (4 years, IIRC) - they have to call an election before that time, but the exact timing varies. At the moment, the party in power has a minority of the seats (we have more than two parties, so it’s possible to “win” the election but not have a majority). If the opposition parties choose to, they could force an election if they have a non-confidence vote, which may happen in the next few months if the prognosticators are correct. As a result we’ll be back at the polls yet again…
Bottom line - it’s a very different system up here.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Here on Guam, we don’t get to vote for our president (the US president). One of the few places in the world where that’s true.
However, we follow the elections pretty closely.
It might be interesting to ask the presidential candidates whether they think it’s right that US citizens on Guam don’t get to vote for the government that creates and executes our laws and policies. We have more U.S. soldiers volunteer here on Guam than anywhere else in the US per capita, but we can’t vote for president.
Sorry to get off topic, but presidential elections are a bit frustrating on Guam.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I hope Get Fit Slowly isn’t serving up super size articles.
I believe Canadian government has five years, George.
Whereas you guys would have these votes to decide who to send to vote for you, we vote for a local representative. The rep or Member of Parliament represents a riding. This was the distance that a horse could ride in a day, as I recall.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
You’ve got plenty of time to choose a party and change your registration affiliation and then vote!
February 5th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Leo,
I am curious to know if you are required to pay U.S. Federal (Income) Taxes?
February 5th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I just finished workng a polling place in California. I was amazed by a number of things:
*the number of people, many over 60, willing to work from 6 AM to 9PM
* the number of people who are mad at their party
* the number of people who want “real” democracy as opposed to our closed primary and republic/elector system
*the number of people who are registered that DON’T vote ( imagine the number who never register
*and the real tear jerker, and dignified, well dressed older man, who had medical equipment hanging around his neck who checked in and said: “I came straight from chemo, I never miss and election”. Who what a day.
I have had the polling place at my house for 4 elections now, but this is the first time I actually worked all day (rahter than being an unofficial worker).
Please register, please vote, even if you are in American Somoa (sorry guam)
February 6th, 2008 at 12:03 am
The results are pretty depressing, but expected.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Election fever usually lasts 6 weeks in the UK, but as in Canada, with the parliamentary system it’s a bit different. Each parties candidates are usually in place well before the election is called and all the parties advertise widely continuously.
As in the US, only members of a political party can vote for their leader, but I think it’s a lot less common for people to belong to a political party - I’ve only ever encountered 3 members of political parties (one of each).
February 6th, 2008 at 5:08 am
I also meant to say that Guam’s position is not cool, especially as the US claims to be the home of modern democracy. It would be easier to change if you switched to direct vote rather than the electoral college.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:32 am
J.D.,
Can’t you decide for which party’s primary you wish to vote in? I’m registered as “Undecided” here in MA, and I can choose whichever party I want for the primary.
You should check your state laws just to be sure.
And for the person from Guam, are you a citizen of Guam, or a citizen of another state temporarily stationed there? If the latter, you should be able to vote via absentee ballot. If the former, well, then I have no idea
February 6th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Paul, Kris was telling me that maybe the rules for the primaries have changed. I’ve been unaffiliated (intentionally, by the way) ever since I registered, and I know that I used to not be able to vote in primaries. Kris thinks maybe I can now. I’ll have to check it out.
Thanks for your comment, Seorsa. That’s a good one. I loved this bit:
* the number of people who want “real” democracy as opposed to our closed primary and republic/elector system
Count me as one of that group…
February 6th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Plonkee, we don’t have to be members of a poliltical party to vote for our leaders. We have to *register* to vote in that party in order to vote in the primary election (not the general election) in *some* states. Others have “open primaries,” and in the general election, anyone can vote for anyone. Literally!
JD, it’s probably not too late to register as a Republican and vote for Ron Paul.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:08 am
We have open primaries in VA. With one race locked up, I’ll be casting a ballot in the one that isn’t.
The Dem primaries are interesting because its delegates by cong district, not percentages of a state overall, that matter.
That, and the Dems are in a complete statistical tie in terms of total delegates (per MSNBC).
We havent had a race that lacked an incumbent in the white house (pres or vice-pres)…since…1960?
February 6th, 2008 at 9:32 am
@Plonkee, I have wondered why Lil’ Bush didn’t invade Guam to overthrow the ruling government and force a democratic election. That seems like something he’d do.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:02 am
A few notes if I may:
The primary processes are controlled by the political parties because it is a process to select who will be that party’s nominee. The two major parties use primaries and caucuses and smaller parties usually use conventions. The parties set the rules and the primaries actually set in motion a larger series of local and state conventions to elect delegates to the national convention. In modern times, the magic number of delegates has been locked up early and the parties had settled on nominees before the official process was complete. Everyone is getting an education in the complete process though this year.
With the caveat that the parties make the rules, it’s important to note that while American territories get no electoral college votes, a privilege reserved for states, the political parties determine representation at national conventions. Yesterday, American Samoa had their primary, and Guam has a Democratic Presidential Primary scheduled for May 3.
States determine voter registration and election laws. I’m also in Virginia, where we do not register by party, and, as such, primaries are open and you can vote in one or the other for one office, but not both. Oregon, which has some of the most progressive voting laws (voting by mail!) has party registration and primary voting is restricted to voters who register with that party.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:12 am
@Aaron
Most fortunately for Guam, the bushwacker would only do that if it were discovered that a) Guam was sitting on a massive oil reserve he could exploit for his own private gain, and/or b) he decided that Guam was the next seething hotbed of Islamofascists. Countries don’t get bushwacked in order to bring them democracy, that’s just the side dish.
I’m a little confused re Guam and voting, but that also led me to wonder about Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
I should wrap this up before I start really ranting on politics, except to say this election season has already been dragging on for a year and I’m so tired of the drama. At this point I wish I could just vote for the person most likely to spearhead a boring, unnewsworthy term as president so we could all recouperate.
Well, and I’m ticked since my preference is already out of the race. Which if I think about too much will lead me to rant on about the inequities of the current system…
February 6th, 2008 at 10:26 am
@Chris: Guam does not have a presidential primary election like American Samoa does. I’ve lived here practically all my life and have never seen one. The parties on Guam send their delegates to the convention without a popular election.
At any rate, there’s a big difference between sending delegates to a convention and being able to vote for president.
@pll: I’m a citizen of the United States but a resident of Guam.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
regarding Guam
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/GU-D.phtml#0503
Saturday 3 May 2008 (tentative date): A Territorial Convention made up of all interested voters meets to choose 6 of Guam’s 11 delegates to the Democratic National Convention (together representing 3 of Guam’s 9 delegate votes at the National Convention).
Of course this is totally different than voting in the Presidential election, but like I said earlier- the primaries are for parties to select their nominees and are controlled by the parties and not the United States government, which controls the electoral process once nominees are chosen.
US Virgin Islands have a convention on Feb 9
Puerto Rico has a caucus on June 7
February 6th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Andrea and George kind of explained how our political system is different, but didn’t answer the question of “how long is election season in Canada”.
The answer is a month. That’s it.
Even after an election date is announced, parties are only legally allowed to campaign in the 30 day period before the election date. So we only have 30 days of ads, signs, and candidates knocking on the door. It’s kind of nice, actually.
I was the CFO for a federal candidate’s campaign once. I had to submit an audited report of all the election expenses. *ALL* of the expenses had to be within that 30 day period - we couldn’t even have a phone hooked up in advance, or pay for having signs printed.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
@Chris: as I said before, there is no primary election on Guam. I know this for a fact … I live here.
Guam’s delegates are selected in a caucus of each party, by a handful of active party members (maybe a hundred or two, but nowhere near the 160K residents here on Guam).
That’s very different from a primary election.
In the general election, Guam has no vote at all. And we’re U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. I understand the electoral college system, but I think it’s very outdated, and in Guam’s case it actually results in an extremely unfair situation.
The possible solutions to our problem would be to:
1. eliminate the electoral college (which doesn’t solve other problems with Guam being a colony);
2. make Guam a state (not likely to happen);
3. decolonize Guam, as called for by United Nations resolutions that the U.S. has agreed to (also not perfect for different reasons, but it does eliminate the problem of Guam not being able to vote for a government that controls us).
February 6th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
You should have changed your registration. I switched mine from Independent to Democrat just so I could vote in the Oregon primary, I’ll be changing it back after my vote.