Re: BBC Pronunciation and the U.S. Elections

Hatunen <hatunen@xxxxxxx> writes:
On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:36:33 -0800 (PST), John Kane
<jrkrideau@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In the USA the president actually is elected to the office.

Not exactly. When we vote for president we are actually voting
for Electors,

That's who *we* vote for. The winners of that election then elect the
president. (Unless they don't in which case the House of
Representatives does.)

in each state equal in number to the nucmber of Senators and
Representatives the state has (the Distrit of Columbia votes for
three additional Electors). On a specified day in December a state's
Electors meet at the state capital and cast their votes for
president. These tallies are forwarded to the U S Congress which
meets in joint session in January when the state tallies are counted
and the national grand tally is determined, with the winner of a
majority of the Electors becoming president.


In most states the ballots are a little vague about all this,
although there have been states that actually listed the Electors
and you had to knwo which candidate they were for.

I seem to recall that in Illinois, when I was growing up, the voting
machines listed the names (in small print), with wording something
like "electors pledged to vote for [e.g.] Richard Nixon, Republican".
Now, looking at the Elections Code, I see that they explicitly don't:

(10 ILCS 5/21-1) The names of the candidates of the several
political parties or groups for electors of President and
Vice-President shall not be printed on the official ballot to be
voted in the election to be held on the day in this Act above
named. In lieu of the names of the candidates for such electors of
President and Vice-President, immediately under the appellation of
party name of a party or group in the column of its candidates on
the official ballot, to be voted at said election first above
named in subsection (1) of Section 2A-1.2 and Section 2A-2, there
shall be printed within a bracket the name of the candidate for
President and the name of the candidate for Vice-President of such
party or group with a square to the left of such bracket.

California has similar wording, explictly saying that it's okay that
the names of the people you're actually voting for aren't on the
ballot.

--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The misinformation that passes for
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |gospel wisdom about English usage
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |is sometimes astounding.
| Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
kirshenbaum@xxxxxxxxxx | of English Usage
(650)857-7572

http://www.kirshenbaum.net/


.

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