The Great American Voting Machine

The one thing about American politics that my students
in Europe have a difficult time getting their heads
around is that the people of the United States of
America do not directly elect their President - That
is done by a bunch of "Electors" from each of the
States in a thing called the Electoral College - And
that has sometimes resulted where a candidate for
President gets a majority of the popular votes but
does not get a majority of the "Elector's" votes and
that it is the votes of the "Electors" are what
actually selects the President of the United States. I
have to always let them in on the secret that most
Americans are not aware that they do not directly
elect their President.

My students always wonder where the "so called"
greatest democracy of the world got the monarchic idea
of electing the "head of state" indirectly. They all
point out that was the way the Holy Roman Emperors of
the Holy Roman Empire (Germany of the Middle Ages)
were elected.

The cartoon I included today "The Great American
Voting Machine" I will be using as a visual in my
future classes in Europe. Actually, it's not a bad
illustration of the complex and overly complicated
system we use for electing our Presidents. Fred

fredscholl@sbcglobal.net