this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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I'm assuming you're not American.
If I'm correct in that assumption, you're in for a real fucking treat. Our elections don't follow simple popular vote or ranked-choice. We have our own system that was designed back when the average citizen was uneducated and therefore couldn't make an informed decision. It's quite interesting (and infuriating) to research.
To point out the very biggest flaw, a presidential candidate doesn't need the popular majority to win the election. Republicans will try to say this is not an important problem to fix, because it's only happened three times in the nation's history, but you'll so find when looking at popular vote numbers that this is loophole is the only thing that gives Republicans a chance in the presidential election these days. Since 2000, we have had 2 Republicans and 2 Democrat presidents. Both of the Republicans lost the popular vote, but still won the election. (The one other time was Andrew Johnson in like the late 1860s I think.
Sound confusing? Of course it does, the whole system is intentionally confusing to keep you from asking questions!
I am American, and the in three elections I'm referring to, the Republican candidate won the popular vote as well. Obviously it's not like that any more, but I was pointing to the 12 years of Republicans we got right after Nixon specifically.