Much like many other Americans, Joelle and I were watching the results of the election on television.
“How do you elect a President in the US?” she asked.
That’s actually a good question. In France, the process is definitely different. First off, France is full of political parties. While we seem to be dominated by two, they have dozens.
During their Presidential election, everyone votes for their parties candidate. The two top candidates then have a run-off, so to speak, for the Presidential spot. When their constitution was re-written 50 some-odd years ago, De Gaulle wanted this. What he was thinking escapes me to this day.
As anyone who has ever attended the required high school “Government” class will tell you, our process hinges on the electoral college. Each state votes for either one candidate or another and all their votes go to that candidate. Each state is allotted a certain number of electoral votes based on their population. The first candidate to get to 270 votes wins.
Makes sense, right?
Try explaining that to a European. It’s hard for most people to grasp that someone can have the majority of the popular votes yet still lose the election. This has happened twice in our history. What is even more astounding is when the electoral college votes against the populace of that state. That has happened once.
It’s one of those fine differences between being a republic and a democracy. Democracy is based purely on the majority. “Mob rules” so to speak. A republic is where we elect leaders to make decisions for us. This is why we elect senators, representatives and our President.
When we elect these people to represent us, then all of us has to live with that decision.
Interesting stuff.
Fortunately she got to witness one of the most exciting elections of modern times.
