Talk Elections

Here are my suggestions on how we handle the General Election. You DON'T have to agree with my suggestions at all! I'm just throwing them out there for you. And I would appreciate it if the rest of you post your thoughts on this matter here as well.

Each person from a state votes for a candidate, and whomever that person votes for gets the electoral votes FROM the state in which that person casts their ballot. Accordingly, if two Democrats from Michigan vote for the Democratic  candidate, and THREE Republicans from Michigan vote for the Republican candidate, then the Republican has won the state of Michigan, and all of it's electoral votes. This, "voting by state" system will work for all the states that are possible.

 If you are a candidate, you may use "state influence" and cast TWO votes. One for yourself, one for your opponent, or both for yourself, or both for your opponent. Whatever you wish, but it would be best to cast both votes for yourself, of course. This HELPS guarantee that you will at least win your own home  state. Your Vice Presidential candidate has this power too.

Of course, we don't have someone from ALL 50 states on this forum, and even if we did, that doesn't mean they would all participate in the fantasy election. Accordingly, a system must be put in place for the remaining states. Here is my, CRAZY, proposition.

The final percentage of the popular vote plays a roll. For example, if you received 56% of the popular vote, you take that number and multiply it by two. Making you have 112. The 112, are your "election points". Both you and your Vice Presidential Candidate receive double the amount of your popular vote, in election points. Therefore, if you received 56% of the popular vote, you have 112 election points, and so does your VP candidate. Thus, collectively you both have 224 election points. You and your opponent, in the "General Election Thread" duel for EACH state that hasn't already been won. (i.e. Each state where we don't have someone from the forum voting.)
Each person who voted in the General Election has 10 election points at their disposal. They GIVE these election points to whichever candidate they want. And they may divide up the election points however they want, (whole numbers only). Therefore, you may give 8 point’s to one, and 2 to the other, or all 10 to one. Doesn't matter.

Now to explain the "dueling for states not already won". Each candidate now has their election points, the two opponents duel for each state (more than one state per post, that way we won't make TONS of stupid posts) with their election points. You essentially, BUY each state with the points. The candidate with the most popular votes makes his bid first. His opponent then has the opportunity to out do his bid. Technically, you only need ONE election point to win the state, that is if your opponent doesn't want challenge you. The challenge goes back and forth until a candidate finally concedes the state.

States like, California, Texas, New York, and Florida, that have HIGH electoral votes, will be the most fought over. Therefore, one candidate may spend 30 election points to get a particular state, whilst another candidate may spend as high as FORTY! The dueling for the states is a "game" of strategy for each candidate. The "people" have already spoke their mind and voted for the candidate, now you must take the points they have given you and APPLY it to help you win the remaining states that no one at this forum is from.

A word of wisdom to the candidates. BE CAREFUL HOW YOU SPEND YOUR ELECTION POINTS! The first one to extinguish all of them, cannot win anymore states. Thus, by default, the candidate who still has election points win ALL remaining states that have not yet been dueled for.

Note: You may challenge your opponents home state and ask for a recount using the election points. However, the minimum to take ANY home state is not ONE election point as it is for all other states (as stated above), but TEN election points. You can ONLY do this with your opponents home state, or YOUR home state (if you lost it). This assures that you MAY not necessarily win your own home state (We want to make it somewhat fair, if you are from a state with a lot of electoral votes, we want to make sure you don't AUTOMATICALLY get them. It's good to have a challenge. The candidate doesn't ALWAYS win their home state, just look at Al Gore in 2000). Your Vice Presidential candidate has the ability to challenge home states as well.

My advice to all candidates: Don't try to steal a home state, unless you have enough election points to challenge it. Remember, sometimes it may just be worth it to let it go.

If by any chance, no one has an electoral majority. Then the election is thrown to the "House". Now we aren't going to go back and do EACH state again. Accordingly, we make a POLL, and each person casts a secret ballot. Whoever wins the poll, has been elected by the "House of Representatives."


That's my proposition on how to handle the General Election. We can work through more of it later. I know after you read that, probably don't understand it, OR you think it's stupid. Well, I think it might work, it represents the candidates fairly. I mean look at the rules! The candidate with the highest percentage of popular votes gets more election points than his opponent. So if he plays his cards right, he SHOULD beat his opponent, if he uses STRATEGY! However, conceivably, he could mess up, and the candidate with the LEAST amount of popular votes wins the election. Which can happen! Look at 2000 for crying out loud!

Let me also say, that I made my OWN Election Game. And it was A LOT more simpler to come up with the rules for that than it was for this "Fantasy Election, because it was a board game, and you can use DICE, and a POLL. So my board game was mostly a game of chance and strategy. You take what is given to you, and apply it as best you can to WIN. I don't mean to brag, but I think MY Election Board Game, is damn near FLAWLESS. A work of ART. Now that I look back on it, I'm AMAZED at what I did. That game took me nearly 3 years to perfect. So, I came up with these rules for our "Fantasy Election" in less time than 3 years. I know its not THAT good (my election game is much better), but I don't think it's all that bad either.

My idea will more than likely be the most complicated of any of your ideas. Other ideas that I've heard are well...just simply have a POLL. Well, I don't think it should be THAT simple, because the REAL Presidential Election isn't that simple. But again, you don't have to like this idea, and I REALLY want to hear feedback from all of you over my idea, and I want to hear your proposals on how to handle the general election even MORE.

Now that I read over my idea I MYSELF even think it's kinda dumb. But hey, I came up with one. And if any of you can think of how to handle this election without SIMPLY having a POLL, then please tell me.

I didn't really understand that but I'll keep reading it over. I think I got the jist of it.

lol...yes I know...it's complicated...

Feel free to ask me any questions, to help you better understand it. AGAIN, I doubt many people will like this idea, just based on the sheer complexity of it all.

I don't think it's that bad... ;)

Are you suggesting that the states get as many EVs as they have in real life? So California will be the biggest state despite the fact that only PD, as far as I know, is from that state? We have three people from Michigan that I have seen, and so on.

Yes, each state would have the same amount of EV as they do in real life. 55 for CA, 31 for NY, 21 for IL, etc. etc. etc.

That EV system really isn't fair.  PD gets 55 Electoral votes?  I think not.  Go by popular vote.

But it seems to me that going by a popular vote would be too easy to sway the vote one way or another.  Like registering a bunch of different accounts and voting for one candidate or another.  Too easy to get ourselves a fraudulent election, I think.

We must have SOME other system other than POPULAR vote. Even in a REAL election we don't go by popular vote. And as GWBfan says, there may be some ballot stuffing, voter fraud, and CORRUPTION. I think we should stay away from just having a poll, and or voting publicly. Think about what happened with GM!

Exactly.  I don't think we can do a popular vote without getting *some* kind of voter fraud.  Everyone will feel they got cheated - except the cheater, that is.

We won't do it by poll---we will do it the way the Republicans are holding their primary.  That way, voter fraud will be easier to identify.

If people are gonna vote, we will run the risk of voter fraud, and that's that. We can't have s system not relying on people's votes, that would be too weird.

That's how it would work in my system anyway. Each person would make their vote public, and whomever wins the most votes from that state, gets that states electoral votes. I know it seems unfair that PD's Republican influence would undoubtedly make California go to the Republicans. But I dunno. You can win the election without California.

The EV system just wouldn't work here.  Screw it.

Wait a minute! You were in New York before! ARIZONA????

Maybe the electoral college should be done a little differently than in the real world.

Say, California.  PD, as far as I know, is the only person on this board from CA, which means the state would go Republican.  But that doesn't mean California has to have 55 EV votes.  We could base the number of EV votes on the number of people planning to vote in this fantasy race.

CM and Nym90 are both in Michigan, which gives that state more EV votes than my state of Ga, since I'm the only one representing that state.  Get it?

I agree. And it doesn't work in the REAL world either, but whadya gonna do? So might as well try to simulate it as best we can here.

Yes, I like GWBfan's idea! We could fix up a situation like that!

See, if we all work together, and throw our ideas in the pot, then we will develope one TASTY election soup!

It will be a soup allright...

I agree that GWBFan's idea is better, I was actually going to propose it myself, ahem.... ;)

But we still face the problem of EVERY other state!!! We probably only have about 10 states at this forum, with people from them. What about the other 40 states! That's why I think we should use some ideas from my plan, in order to see who wins those remaining states.

I will not live under Electoral College rule here at the forum.  Say no to the AFEV system!

I would say have a regular simulated EC, the results of which would match those of the popular vote, but try to do our best guess to determine who should win each state after the results are in.

Well, I can already determine that the Republicans will win every state in the south, and the Democrats will win all the New England states. That's kinda unfair to both parties.

Not necessarily. Isn't Harry from MS, or am I mistaken? And NHpolitico is from NH, he is the only guy from that state I've seen. A've also seen a Connecticut Rep , and no Dem from that state.

There is a CT dem but he doesn't post much.

The chairman knows his memebrs, huh? ;)

I know everything, for I am perfect. :)

And modest too! :)

Well, it would depend on how much of a landslide it is. If the GOP wins a landslide, or the Dems win a landslide, they would cut into the base states of the other party. Also, it would depend on where the presidential and VP nominees are from, too. For example, if the race is reasonably close then Supersoulty should win Pennsylvania even though it would lean slightly Democratic otherwise. Likewise if I were to be the nominee and I don't lose in a landslide, I hope I can count on Michigan. ;)

Yes I am from Mississippi
Realistically a Democrat would have a very tough time winning Mississippi, even if the presidential nominee was from here.
However, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee are all states in the South that a Southern Democrat could put into play.  So if we do an electoral college by state, I would put AR, LA, and TN as big tossups and and MS as a tossup, but GOP-leaning.
Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida are also states that a Southerner could carry, but with a lesser chance of success.  Remember, though, Clinton carried all 3 of these.

This is starting to get confusing.  lol

Okay.  So Harry is from Miss.  I'm from Ga.  We can't *both* win the south.  If I vote Republican, I'd expect my state's EV's to go Republican.  Likewise, if Harry votes Democrat, his EV's should go Democrat (a Democrat winning in Miss!?  Oh my!).

But then there's another problem...two people from the same state, one votes Republican, the other votes Democrat - who gets the EV's?

I'm starting to go cross-eyed over this, so I guess I'll just let ya'll duke it out and decide on how to go.  Let me know how it goes.

Lol, that is a problem. I am leaning towards Nym90, who I think suggested having a popualr vote, and then just marking the states. OR! Couldn't we have a popular vote and then whoever won a state wins that state's member votes one more time. So if there are 5 voters from a state, 3 Reps and two Dems, the Dem nominee will recieve two votes, the Rep nominee 8 (3 direct votes + 5 from the state as a whole). That would give some weight to carrying states, but not mess up as badly as the normal EC. Home states could still be won, b/c with so few voters the candidates own vote might well be enough. What do you think of that?

We could do the way I proposed in another post.

In regards to the popular vote, the concern about voter fraud (i.e. people registering multiple accounts)--isn't there a way to only allow people to vote if they had registered by a certain
date (say Jan. 1) ?

Also, I apologize if this question has been answered before, as I haven't read through all the posts, but is winning the general election just an honor or what?

No, whoever wins gets resonsible for our nuclear weapons, lol. I object to the word "just"! It's a major honour, and a responsibility, neither of which is to be taken lightly.  ;) :)

I was thinking control over the design of this forum or something...

No no no, that's Dave's job, and that will ALWAYS be Dave's job. Whoever is elected President, will simply be the CHIEF member and representative from the forum.

I see that Realpolitik is the senator of West Virginia. That makes me to assume that we foreigners are allowed to vote too?? Let's widen the foundation of American Democracy with new  spirit of trans-atlantic relationships!

If you have an avatar you can vote.

Exactly, Mike, me and RP are all voting, and there might be others as well. You're free to join in! :)