Bit Of A Geek

I guess that I am becoming more of a geek in my old age. Just to prove it, I watched the Melbourne Cup on the Internet on Tuesday whilst at work. The Website was BigPondSport.com. Registration is free and the picture wasn't too bad. I think the site was a little overloaded as the picture stopped down the home straight, just to add to the tension.

Can you believe that the phone rang twice during the race? Some people in this country have no idea about the importance of this race. Oh yeah, I picked Media Puzzle in the office sweepstake and got bugger all.

Do Wot John?

Here's my small wrap-up of the US Presidential election. Seeing as Dubya won the popular vote by some 3.5 million votes, as opposed to losing the popular vote four years ago, I think it was a case of "Do wot John?" for his two opponents - Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards. The American public didn't know what John was going to do. Anyway, the US Presidential elections are a bit Monty Pythonesque by nature.

The College Electoral system used in the US Presidential elections is quite intriguing. The populace don't actually vote for the President, much like Australians don't vote for the Prime Minister.

Some of this strange system is revealed in the FAQ of www.archives.gov. US citizens not domiciled in the fifty States, or Washington D.C., are unable to vote. So, if you live in a US territory, such as Puerto Rico or Guam, tough luck.

Fourty-eight of the States have a winner-takes-all approach to the Electoral College votes, however Nebraska and Maine have a proportional voting system in place.

There are 538 votes in the Electoral College and this distribution can vary every 10 years, depending on the US Census. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, and their distribution is based upon the current population. It does change. There is a minimum of one electoral vote for each House of Reps member and each state gets to elect two Senators. Washington D.C., although not a State, gets the minimum of three seats.

I would have thought that in a Federal election, voting methods, whether electronic, punch-cards, or by ballot paper, would have been the same country-wide. It is a bit archaic that each State determines it's voting method and voting distribution.

And what did the world end up with? Another four years of a megalomaniac. Dubya may be an idiot but the American voting public have just shown that they are very conservative. They are just taking the situation as it is instead of making a great change to elect John Kerry and his Administration. At least we all know that Dubya is a dead duck and no-one will be worrying about him anymore. In four years time the world will be rid of him.

I'm disappointed that the old Red Indian curse didn't get him. Still a couple of months to go however.