General DiscussionSomeone from US explain pls

Yes, that's how it works. Sucks that it kind of makes your vote completely worthless in states that have historically only voted for a certain party for several decades.

It's the states choice IIRC but most states choose the candidate that won the majority in the state.

So, basically 1% of votes in one state can determine difference of 40 votes out of the total 540? That seems like a really unfair system. He won Ohio and Pennsylvania with like 2% advantage each and losing those would mean he gets 38 less votes and Clinton gets 38 more.

Yes for most states. Two states can split their electoral votes by congressional districts but it almost never happens. They are Nebraska and Maine.

http://www.nbcnews.com/card/why-do-maine-nebraska-split-their-electoral-votes-n679226
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)

In modern times it was setup this way as a means of preventing high density urban areas from controlling the rest of the country and leaving the rural areas out. I'm not really sure if this is better or fair but it is what it is.

If you want a huge history lesson originally congress voted for the president, then electoral college which was made up of senators etc. It's only in the last 100 years that the population has voted directly for the president. You use to vote for your congress representative, then they selected the senator, the the senators selected the electoral college votes which picked the president, a lot closer to a parliamentary system.

You might say oh that's not fair but it's only happened twice in modern history where the president lost the popular vote but won the election with bush in 2000 and now with trump. The other times it happened were in the 1800s when the population didn't vote directly.

If you really wanna talk scandal look up Rutherford B Hayes. You think America is divided now? That was right after the civil war when the south hated the north and the north basically occupied the south with troops to ensure blacks weren't murdered in the streets among other things. The north isn't blameless here either, a lot of corrupt northern business men came in and took over southern lands and businesses and really ruined the south's economy. So they got all up in arms and wanted to elect a president Tilden who promised to repeal Lincoln's acts and some southern states were threatening to split their electoral votes. So all the politicians got together in a closed room and basically cast a bargain that if they let Hayes win then the north would withdraw troops from the south. Can you believe it?! The election not a result of votes but of backroom deals with even the president involved. It's absolutely nuts. The only comparison I can think of in modern times is like if Texas said you better let trump win or we'll succeeded and declare war on California so Obama brokers a deal to have some states changed their votes behind closed doors. It'd be insane.

Although ultimately a Tilden win would've destroyed the country so maybe it was good idk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_where_winner_lost_popular_vote

As I got it from the page, the Democrats sacrificed presidency that they could unite the North and the South better. good guys Democrats.
Though, this got me confused:"the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South".
Also, as I got it from my moderate research, so called "swing states" pretty much control the fate of the US, all of this seems very weird. They should just divide each state's electoral votes based on percentages each candidate got.

valve should balance this

The electoral college is the biggest bullshit piece of crap way to vote i have ever seen. When there is a rate of failure to a potential system with no failure rate (popular vote), why tf was it created. Complete shit.

I mean that's not exactly true though because what's a swing state? It's easier to name the states that aren't swing states like the east coast new york, mass, dc, and the west coast cali, oregon, washington always going blue and texas and the southern states not named florida like bama georgia, miss, missouri always going red. That's about it. In last 30 years the midwest has flipped many times, so has the western states like arizona, nevada, new mexico and of course ohio and flordia. Look at all the mid west states trump had to win to get this thing done and they are tradtionally not swing states. Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Virginia which he almost won are not considered swing states at all. Which is kind of why this is a huge upset. He swung states that weren't swing states.

Really the electoral college only diminishes your vote greatly if you live in new york, cali or texas. Like I said popular vote almost always matches the electoral outcome for what it's worth.

"As I got it from the page, the Democrats sacrificed presidency that they could unite the North and the South better. good guys Democrats.
Though, this got me confused:"the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South". "

Be a little mindful, the democrats in the 1800s were the south and more representative of modern day republicans. It wasn't dems vs republicans as we know today, it was north vs south.

The republicans agreed to withdraw troops cus they were literally occupying the south after the civil war. Just google it, check those wikipedia links I sent. If you think today is bad the country was massively screwed up in the 1800s. President grant had to slaughter entire tribes of indians just so the US cold access gold in the black hills to distract everyone from the racial crisis and prevent a global recession. Pretty rough times. Grant is very underrated as a president.

When the patch is comming out, when we get to count votes for the number of people.

In modern times it was setup this way as a means of preventing high density urban areas from controlling the rest of the country and leaving the rural areas out. I'm not really sure if this is better or fair but it is what it is.

It would be fair if the voting was obligatory.

honestly i dont know why popular vote isnt the thing that determines the winner. its rigged!

Yeah the US election system is fucked, everyone knows it, but whatever side it favors doesn't want to change it after it gives them the win.

well not exactly, the votes are essentially a suggestion to the electoral college, who's votes actually count. They are supposed to vote according to the majority, but there have been numerous cases of them voting how ever they want anyway.