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Non US citizens, what's the weirdest thing about USA elections, compared to elections in your country? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

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For me it is the concept of registering to vote. I am citizen so I have the right to vote automatically and only thing I need to provide is some accepted ID.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some things come to mind:

Each state could theoretically name a different candidate (all that primaries bullshit)
No unified federal law for voting for the fucking president; each state has different voting laws
Parties have to be registered at a state level and ONLY Rep and Dem exist on all 50. What the fucking fuck
Unlimited money spending
The fucking electoral college. Winner takes the whole state.
Election on tuesday (if i recall, that's a leftover of ye olde times because it's when rural people were more likely to be around cities)

'muricans somehow insist they are a democracy despite all the hurdles, weird laws and obvious gatekeeping that make it a very shitty republic where votes are NOT equal.

For comparison, Brazil's elections for president and state governors happen on the same year/day (also for some senators and federal deputies, but let's focus on president). It's direct vote counting, majority (50% + 1) wins. If no candidate gets more than half total votes, the 2 better voted candidates go to a 2nd turn, which happens 4 weeks after the 1st. Election happens on a sunday and there's an electoral tribunal that handles all the logistics across all 27 states.

Regarding expenditure, it took us a while to stop allowing corporations to finance candidates' campaigns (thanks in no small part to a supreme judge who wanted to keep that legal), the downside is that candidates with rich "friends"/families still have a significant advantage, since direct individual donations are still allowed.

[–] mbehling 6 points 1 month ago

Some states actually split the electoral college vote. Us elections are truly bonkers

https://electoralvotemap.com/which-states-split-their-electoral-votes/