[ford prefect]

can one of you yanks explain to me what this election is for?

are you getting a new president?

and geroge w. cant run again cuz hes already done 2 terms right? who is his succersor fro republicans? who is the front running democrat and when is that election if that isnt the one for today

[The_Heroic_Loser]

It's not a presidential election. And you're right, Bush has already done two terms so even if it was a presidential election, he wouldn't be able to run.

[lord_of_la_mancha]

hello ford

today the americans are having a mid term election

america's system of government has 3 branches
judiciary : supreme court and other courts
executive: president
legislative: the house of representatives & the senate

todays election has to do with legislative branch
these elections occur in every year evenly divisisble by 2
presidential elections only occur in every year divisible by 4

okay, the legislative elections are today and all 435 house of representative members , aka congressmen and 33 of 100 senators are up for election/reelection
all 435 congress reps are up for election because the term of a congressman is only 2 yrs, so in 2008 all 435 go for election again

only 1/3 of the senators are up for election. because senators have 6 year terms only a third need to be elected now, another third 2 yrs later and so on. ( can you believe it, we don't elect senators we just have the Prime minister appoint them for life)

congressmen are elected from districts ( which are just like ridings)
while senators are elected state wide.

i hope this helps and forgive me for being so pedantic in my explanation

[ford prefect]

thanks
why does ours seem so much simpler?


i have a headache. that was confusing nd i thinkit was the coles notes version.

yay canada!
sometimes simplicity is the best

[Sam]

It's really all about your local elections. Governor, Mayor, Congressman, Senator, Council member, etc. So if you keep that in mind, it's really not complicated, because you don't have to worry about all the other states just your own. Then in a Presidential election year, you can just add one more contest to the picture.

[Tadgie]

Hey Ford, just to bogle your mind a little more in respects to our wonderful system... and for everyone else, this got a chuckle out of me.

Here in Florida, we just passed an amendment to the state constitution that would require all further amendments to have a 60 percent yea vote in order to pass. Ironically, it passed with a 57 percent. Hooray Florida.

[ford prefect]

thats funny

[BaseballerX]

Originally Posted by Tadgie

Hey Ford, just to bogle your mind a little more in respects to our wonderful system... and for everyone else, this got a chuckle out of me.

Here in Florida, we just passed an amendment to the state constitution that would require all further amendments to have a 60 percent yea vote in order to pass. Ironically, it passed with a 57 percent. Hooray Florida.

they'll probably ask for a recount again, lol

[tobnameless]

It is also a time for county and state measure, amendments, and laws to voted on.

If you really wanna get confused ask about the electoral college. :shock:

[ford prefect]

no, i am good thanks

it is so much easier up here

god

and none of ours have illicit text message relationships with their interns.

Up here they sleep with famous hockey players :P