Valimure wrote:
Basically, we can think of it like this. We're in a two party system because each person only gets one vote, and whoever has the most votes wins.
Sometimes, people get more than one vote, and/or party operatives conspire to deny the majority its preferred candidate. For proof, one need not look any further than the presidential election of 2000, in which Bush defeated Gore in Florida, by 500 some odd votes out of around nine million cast.
Eight years later, Republican Norm Coleman appeared to have been re-elected to his Minnesota senate seat by 700 votes, but Democrat state elections supervisor Mark Ritchie somehow managed to "keep counting until the Democrat wins," and, as a result, we got Stuart Smalley (aka Al Franken) as the new senator, and the 60th vote in the senate for Obamacare.
Four years ago, in Ohio (I think), Mellowese Richardson was caught voting for Obama five times, in five different precincts. A local judge did not take kindly to voting fraud, and sentenced her to five years in jail. An appeals court judge was more lenient, and reduced her sentence to probation. At the state Democratic convention, Richardson was an honored guest, and wildly cheered by the attendees, an indication of how Ohio Democrats feel about election fraud, when it's committed in favor of their party.
And while Chicago is most noted for it, there are other cities and states where the dead vote in droves. Usually for Democrats, but Republicans have their share of dead voters, too.
Oh, and going back to the 2000 election, it is a little known fact, that if Gore had won in his home state of Tennessee, it would have put him over the top, and the mess in Florida would not have been a factor. It can be argued, that the people of his own state - the ones that knew him best - rejected him in favor of Bush.
It would be nice if "one person, one vote" was a reality. In some cases, it is, but in others, it is not. I don't think there's been an honest election in this country since 1956. (Well, maybe 1984, when Reagan won 49 states. (Kind of hard to cheat when a president was that popular.)
Drawscore