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A pile of 'I voted' stickers in the US. SIPA USA/PA Images

Explainer: How does the US voting system work?

People have already starting casting their votes in the 2020 election.

THE 2020 ELECTION in the United States is looming over the horizon, with just over two weeks to go until 3 November. 

Many eyes were glued to the ins and outs of the 2016 US presidential election, but with the pandemic and everything else happening in the world this year, the 2020 election may have fallen under the radar for some.

Ahead of the big day next month, here is a very basic guide to how the US voting system works.

So what is happening at the start of next month? 

On 3 November, people from the United States will cast their votes for president. 

A presidential election takes place every four years on the first Tuesday that follows the first Monday in November.

However, it’s not just the president being elected. 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the US Senate will also be elected. 

These are the US equivalent of the Dáil and the Seanad.

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate advantage at the moment over the Democrats. 

How does voting work in the United States?

When voting for president in the US, the choices presented are generally more limited than those in Irish presidential elections. 

In the US, the real battle is between two candidates – one from the Democratic Party (Joe Biden) and one from the Republican Party (Donald Trump). 

trump-and-biden-meet-in-first-presidential-debate Donald Trump and Joe Biden in a presidential debate last month. DPA / PA Images DPA / PA Images / PA Images

Depending on the State, there could be other candidates from smaller parties on the ballot, but the Republicans and Democrats have been in power for all but a few years in the history of the US.

However, the tally of votes from members of the public (otherwise known as the popular vote) doesn’t determine the winner of the presidency. 

Presidential elections instead use the Electoral College. So to win the presidency, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes. 

What is the Electoral College?

In the Electoral College, each state is awarded a certain number of electors (as many as it has members of Congress). There are 538 electors in total. 

For example, there are 39 electors in Texas, 55 in California and three in Wyoming. 

After members of the public cast their ballot papers, each vote is included in a statewide tally. 

In 48 States and in Washington DC, the winner gets all the electoral votes for that state. 

Two States – Maine and Nebraska – elect using a proportional system

A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors – more than half of the total – to win the presidency. 

u-s-chicago-presidential-election-early-voting Voters waiting in line for early voting in Chicago, Illinois this week. Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November. However, the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December. 

This is how Donald Trump was elected as US president in 2016. He won the Electoral College vote, but lost the popular vote.

This happened before in 2000 and three other times in the 1800s, according to the US government.

If no candidate receives the majority of the electoral votes, the vote then goes to the House of Representatives. 

House members choose the new president from among the top three candidates. The Senate can then elect the vice-president from the remaining top two candidates.

This has only happened once before in 1824, when John Quincy Adams was elected by the House as president. 

Have people tried to change this process? 

It would require a constitutional amendment to change it as it was part of the original US constitution.  

According to US government archives, more than 700 proposals have been put forward to change or get rid of the Electoral College over the past 200 years. 

Who can run for president? 

In order to actually try to become the US president, you must:

  • Be a natural-born US citizen 
  • Be at least 35 years old 
  • Have been a resident of the US for 14 years  

How do political parties select their candidate? 

u-s-texas-plano-presidential-election-early-voting Election signs outside a polling station in Texas. Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

The election process in the US starts with primary elections and caucuses. These are how states select a potential presidential nominee. 

Primaries generally use secret voting ballots while caucuses are large gatherings of voters who choose their candidate at the end of a meeting. 

This then moves to nominating conventions where political parties select one nominee to get behind.

During a convention, each nominee also announces their vice-presidential running mate. 

The candidates campaign across the country, much like canvassers in Ireland before elections and referenda, to explain their views and plans to people. 

The candidates also must take part in debates during the run-up to the election. 

What about postal votes? Why has Trump been so critical of them? 

Millions of Americans vote by post in elections, but this year in particular has seen record figures so far.

More than 17.8 million people as of Thursday have cast their ballots ahead of the election. 

The result of the White House race will not be known at the earliest until the night of 3 November in the US, but the early vote indications from these ballots appear to favour Biden, who has a double-digit lead over Trump in the national polls.

Trump frequently denounces voting by post as being rife with fraud, but there has been no evidence of widespread irregularities with mail-in votes in past elections.

voting-in-wilkes-barre-us-15-oct-2020 A banner raised outside an election bureau in the US. SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor who runs the US Elections Project, said the early voting numbers bode well for Biden but there could be heavy turnout for Trump on 3 November. 

Several polls have shown that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to vote early because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’ve warned that the heavily Democratic voting at this point should not be an indicator that Biden has the election [sewn] up,” McDonald said in an early vote analysis on his website. “Yes, the numbers are very good for Biden.

“However, it is very likely Republicans will show up in force to vote in person,” he added.

According to the US Elections Project, as of Thursday voters have requested 80.69 million mail-in ballots in the states reporting such figures.

Of the states that report requests by political party registration, Democrats have requested 23.66 million ballots and Republicans 13.91 million.

Do people in the US vote on paper like we do? 

This varies from state to state. Some have electronic voting devices which some use paper ballots when voting on the day.

Technical hitches are common during US elections and voting machines have led to some concerns about cybersecurity. 

Hackers are capable of entering voting machines. 

In 2016, US intelligence said Russian agents had tried to access the electronic electoral lists of some 20 states and accessed at least one of them, though without apparently modifying the data.

Washington announced in November 2019 that it had strengthened its election security across the country. 

Here in Ireland, you may remember our own issues with electronic voting (otherwise known as e-voting). 

The idea for e-voting was first floated by then-Environment Minister Noel Dempsey back in 1999. 

Legal provisions were made for electronic voting in the Electoral (Amendment) Act of 2000.

The government brought 7,500 machines from Dutch firm Nedap at a cost of €51 million to the state.

However, a commission reported in April 2004 that the system’s reliability could not be established to its satisfaction.

As a result, plans to roll it out were put on ice, and the country went back to full paper voting for the 2004 elections after a brief blip of e-voting. 

oh-biden-and-trump-supporters-gather-in-cincinnati-as-biden-speaks-in-the-area A woman arguing with Trump supporters in Cincinnati earlier this week. SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

So when will we actually know who the new president is and when will they enter office?

Although we might have an idea who the winner is by the night of 3 November, the result of the popular vote may not come in until some time after this. 

Trump last month failed to explicitly guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.

“We might not know for months,” Trump said, adding later: “This is not going to end well.”

“I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully,” he said.

Biden has pledged to respect the results “after all the ballots are counted.”

“That will be the end of it. And if it’s me, fine. If it’s not me, I will support the outcome,” he said.

Electors are due to cast their votes on 14 December and the next US president should be officially inaugurated on 20 January next year. 

- With reporting by AFP and Press Association

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    Mute Niall
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    Oct 18th 2020, 9:02 PM

    It doesn’t.

    104
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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 18th 2020, 9:51 PM

    @bread of heaven: what evidence is there to show that?

    0.00004% is not enough to have any influence.

    https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/316458-the-truth-about-voter-fraud

    46
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    Mute John Considine
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    Oct 18th 2020, 9:53 PM

    @bread of heaven: There’s a lot of attempted fraud going on by bread of heaven. He’s so self-righteous he thinks making politicised accusations with no offer of proof is justified. Shocking really.

    The irony being my post is actually and demonstrably true…

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 18th 2020, 9:55 PM

    @bread of heaven: …election fraud is also very easy to detect. So easy that it’s not worth attempting.

    https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud

    29
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    Mute John Considine
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:01 PM

    @Diaspora’d: Not to mentions there are more checks on mail in votes in (most of) the American system(s) than there are for live votes in ours.

    Which is actually a slight concern, you have to pay genuine attention to the detailed ballot instructions in order not to have your ballot disqualified for a slight mistake.

    20
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    Mute D H
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:04 PM

    @bread of heaven:….. Said the republicans who shut down polling stations in more democrat leaning areas of republican ran states, said the republicans who tried to gut the postal service before mail in voting started, said the republicans who set up illegal drop offs for ballots marking them official when they are just republican ballot harvesting stations……

    36
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    Mute bread of heaven
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:21 PM

    @Diaspora’d: Yeah, the extent to which it could have an effect is debatable. It could be negligible. It’s a bit like foreign interference. You’ll have Russians trying to influence it for the Republicans and agents of Communist China trying to do the same for the Democrats, but I can’t see that having too much of an effect.

    The Dems won’t be able to do anything like on the scale of the fix against Sanders in 2016 and 2020 in the primaries.

    9
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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:27 PM

    @bread of heaven: hmm and the track record of Republicans is so super clean eh….Nixon ? Watergate ? Florida 200 ? George W ? – give it a fking rest ya muppet.

    41
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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:22 PM

    @bread of heaven: what fix in the primaries? Sanders lost to Hillary because of the super delegate voting system that the DNC had in its rules. It was an unfair rule but not illegal

    11
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    Mute Colm O'Leary
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    Oct 19th 2020, 7:47 AM

    @bread of heaven: really? Sounds like more republicans projection to me! Accuse the other side of what I’m doing myself to divert suspicion!!!

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    Mute Colm O'Leary
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    Oct 19th 2020, 7:52 AM

    @bread of heaven: and what about the places the republicans have placed fake mailboxes for posting ballots in all over California and they’ve refused to remove them? It sounds like it’s the republicans commuting fraud to me? And breaking the law by the way!

    10
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    Mute bread of heaven
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    Oct 19th 2020, 8:06 AM

    @Colm O’Leary: My reading of that is that it’s a stunt to highlight the potential problems with ballot harvesting. There are so many legal challenges going on in the background around what is and what isn’t legal. They’re probably trying to make a point.

    1
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    Mute Charles Quinn
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:08 PM

    Anything about Hunter Biden’s laptop???

    Shouldn’t The Journal be talking about that???

    71
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    Mute D H
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:16 PM

    @Charles Quinn: yea or about trumps tax evasion, or giuliani and bannon being played like the flured that they are by sworn enemies of the US

    54
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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:33 PM

    @Charles Quinn: we should be talking about it and how Rudy Guliana is under orders to dig dirt on the bidens and in doing so he has become embroiled with russian spies. Trump was tipped off about Rudy but he just shrugged his shoulders.

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    Mute Brian #WearADamnMask
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:35 PM

    @Charles Quinn: Maybe there’s been little mention of it as Trump’s own National Security Advisor told him it was faked….

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-biden-ukraine-russian-disinformation/2020/10/15/43158900-0ef5-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html

    24
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    Mute DJ François
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:36 PM

    @Charles Quinn: the bang of desperation from Trump’s fanbois is hilarious

    38
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    Mute Aoife Dooley
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:11 PM

    @D H: I think you mean Tax Avoidance as Tax Evasion is illegal. He used the tax systems put in place by democrats, to his financial advantage. You might forget the Clinton’s, Obama’s and Bidens are all multi-millionaires…..from political careers which is just wrong.

    17
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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:24 PM

    @Aoife Dooley: His businesses are badly run and not profitable, he lost money owning a casino … how could he be expected to run a country?

    27
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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:24 PM

    @Aoife Dooley: well in that case he doesn’t have anything to worry about when he is kicked out of office on a few weeks. It has been well documented however that the feds may have a few questions to ask him and it may not have a happy ending. Well not the one he is used to paying hush money for.

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    Mute The God Of All Nerds
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    Oct 19th 2020, 1:05 AM

    @Charles Quinn: oh god not another Hilary’s emails whatabout for the trump crowd to lean on as a not as strong as they think crutch

    12
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    Mute D H
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    Oct 19th 2020, 3:20 AM

    @Aoife Dooley: when he is charged and convicted when he leaves office, it will be called tax evasion, wire frsud, money laundering…

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    Mute Vic Vinegar
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:19 PM

    Hey journal still waiting on that hunter Biden story pls

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    Mute Brian #WearADamnMask
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:36 PM
    23
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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:37 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: what is it you want to know? Most media outlets aren’t wasting their time on it because it’s all made up. Have a look at fox news. They have it well covered since Rudy has a direct line to their news team.

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    Mute Kevin O'Brien
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:42 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: Am wondering how long your comment will last before it is removed. They (the journal “mediators” ) don’t like questions like that. It doesn’t fit the narrative you see.

    17
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    Mute Vic Vinegar
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:49 PM

    @Brian Madden: it’s clearly not made up since the bidens haven’t even denied it was hunters laptop….. people just won’t believe what they don’t want to believe

    23
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    Mute Brian #WearADamnMask
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:58 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: Why should they give the story any credibility by responding to it. The story has been debunked by US intelligence (to the point where Giuliani is being investigated by the FBI, as confirmed by numerous outlets), so Biden is doing what he should do – letting the story go away like all the other disinformation being put out by the Trump campaign

    18
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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:58 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: it’s totally made up by Rudy. It’s a well known fact that he has been played by the Russians whilst in Ukraine trying to dig dirt on the bidens. Nobody is taking it seriously except the right wing media who are desperately trying to get anything they can to stick to biden as they have ran out of options.

    15
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    Mute Vic Vinegar
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:05 PM

    @Brian #WearADamnMask: it has not been debunked that’s just a blatant lie

    16
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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:14 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: the trump camp are making it up as they go along in the hope that something will stick. Guiliani is wrecked from all the trips to the ukraine and the Russians have played him. It makes them look ridiculous. Meanwhile biden and the majority of the media are paying no attention and it will fade away and be replaced by something more ridiculous next week.

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:25 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: what is the crime that Joe Biden is alleged to have committed based on these e-mails?

    9
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    Mute Brian #WearADamnMask
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:27 PM

    @Vic Vinegar: I’ll tell you what – have a read of this, then come back here (with a straight face) and tell me the story hasn’t been debunked…

    https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-post-hunter-joe-biden-giuliani-red-flags-disinformation-2020-10?r=US&IR=T

    7
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    Mute Alan Kenny
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:24 PM

    I guess if Biden wins everyone will be happy again with the electoral college system. If trump wins then it’s a shambles of a system

    50
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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:32 PM

    @Alan Kenny: ya mean a bit like the way Republicans don’t think someone should be appointed to the Supreme if its an election year when there is a Dem President but of course want to rush one through when its a Republican – that type of hypocrisy – is that what has you vexed ???

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:27 PM

    @Alan Kenny: if he wins the popular vote and the electoral college vote then what’s the issue?

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    Mute Keith Richardson
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    Oct 19th 2020, 12:51 AM

    @Alan Kenny: like a boss

    https://youtu.be/ajkmlNFoqGk

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    Mute Kieran Duffy
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    Oct 19th 2020, 2:11 AM

    @Alan Kenny: Democrats can’t really win the electoral college without winning the popular vote.

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    Mute Teddy Bear
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    Oct 19th 2020, 12:01 PM

    @Dave Hammond: ha ha you just sent him to the burns unit

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    Mute Kevin O'Brien
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    Oct 18th 2020, 9:15 PM

    It doesn’t, you could have saved yourself a lot of typing on this Sunday evening.

    34
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    Mute James Gorman
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:06 PM

    What a messed up system

    29
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    Mute Ciaran Burke
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    Oct 18th 2020, 9:23 PM

    Badly.

    23
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    Mute J Flood
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:09 PM

    Now, spend equal time explaining proportional representation and does it work?

    19
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    Mute Cathal Murphy
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    Oct 18th 2020, 10:27 PM

    Poorly. It works poorly.

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    Mute Bramley Hawthorne
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    Oct 19th 2020, 7:55 AM

    It’s a system based on the direct rule of the very rich with pretend contests between two billionaires every four years. The rest is just flag-waving for the easily led.

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    Oct 19th 2020, 10:15 AM

    The electoral college is an 18th Century Anachronism designed to give slave owners’ votes more weight. It means the election is decided by half a dozen or so states and effectively disenfranchises everyone else.

    While it exists the US can’t be regarded as a full democracy.

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    Mute Declan Wall
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    Oct 18th 2020, 11:27 PM

    At least they allow Americans living in other countrys to vote. Not like we have a great electoral system here

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Oct 19th 2020, 1:18 AM

    @Declan Wall: this is true, but as a US citizen living abroad you are obliged to still do a US Federal Tax Return every year and you retain the right to vote.

    Irish citizens living abroad don’t have a vote in Ireland but aren’t ‘obliged’ as Irish citizens to do an Irish tax return or declaration every year if they don’t earn money in Ireland.

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    Mute Kieran Duffy
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    Oct 19th 2020, 2:12 AM

    Most countries allow citizens living abroad to vote but don’t require them to file tax returns. Both Ireland and the US are unusual.

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    Mute Eileen Horgan
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    Oct 19th 2020, 3:07 PM

    If Biden wins both himself and his VP will be visiting Ireland . Kamala Harris’ ancestor Hamilton Brown was an Ulster-Scots Planter from Co.Antrim who was a slave trader. The American media are being very silent on this matter.

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