Yeah we lost the House of Representatives. Fortunately most of the Democrats elected are pretty conservative. The Senate is still in the balance though. (2 seats :sick01: )

 

Losing/Lost by 100,000 votes in my state for Governor. Although about 50% of the voting places have to officially confirm that.

 

Edit: Now 500K. :sick01: I'm just going to bed.

I think voting is important, and that everyone should vote, but if they don't want to thats their choice. No-one can force them - and they shouldn't. If they don't care enough about the country they live in to take their say in who is going to run it, its their problem. However, I don't think children should vote. Children (not all, but probably most) can be swayed by easy arguement and shallow promises. Sometimes adults can too, I'll give you that, but the majority of adults can tell the difference between the big issues ('greater good' type stuff) and promises that are simply put out there to win votes, but are never intended to be followed through. I'm not saying that there aren't some children out there who could do this (and seeing as most of you are younger than me I'll probably get some disagreement on this) but I would say they are the minority.

 

Oh and kinda off-topic but... can someone try to explain the US government system to me? Here in NZ we had one set of elections every 3 years, we elect one government, they are in office for 3 years then they can run again. We have no Senate, no Congress, and no mid-term elections. The US system is all kinda confusing to me, so if someone could give me an overview that'd be great (for example, what exactly does the senate/congress do?)

Do we vote every three or four years? I remember all the hoohah about the last election.

Are you old enough to vote,Isabel?

For those that arent aware, results for the midterm elections are up at Reuters.

 

http://uselections.uk.reuters.com/states/

 

Senates is still not fully decided, I understand.

Democrats take the house! Now for the senate...

 

Looks like the republicans still got the senate.

 

http://uselections.uk.reuters.com/

(US voting results on a UK website. Is the US that important? You don't hear much about the French president anymore, do you?)

Do we vote every three or four years? I remember all the hoohah about the last election.

Are you old enough to vote,Isabel?

I'm pretty sure we're *supposed* to have elections every 3 years. It doesn't always work out exactly though.

 

And yes, I'm old enough to vote, I voted in our last elections.

Oh and kinda off-topic but... can someone try to explain the US government system to me? Here in NZ we had one set of elections every 3 years, we elect one government, they are in office for 3 years then they can run again. We have no Senate, no Congress, and no mid-term elections. The US system is all kinda confusing to me, so if someone could give me an overview that'd be great (for example, what exactly does the senate/congress do?)

The US government is all about power. No one (in theory) can or will be able to hold absolute power. Therefore this why we have 3 branches of government; the Executive (like your PM and aides), the Legislative (like your HOR) and Judicial (like your New Supreme Court).

 

Visual of Our Fed. Government

Now all this was established by our Constitution, which you don't have in NZ. Our Constitution is the document on which was written the basis of our government, the basis of the states and the people's rights. It can be changed through amendments, but the process is so difficult that all most every single person in the US would have to agree on it. However it still has been changed minorly 27 times, with first 10 spelling out the rights of the US citizen (free speech, religion, press; freedom to own weapons; guarantee your property cannot be seized (w/ exceptions); right to have trial; and on and on...)

 

Also to clear up what states are. They are essentially more 'local' forms of government, but not the lowest. They have their own constitutions, executive, legislative, judicial, taxes and can create their own laws. (Like for example, our state just declared gay marriage unconstitutional) However, they must constent their power to the Federal government and in return the Fed. gov protects them.

 

Could some other people explain their govs a little and how they vote (or not vote)?

 

V I'm pretty sure that most NZ citizens (or UK citizens for that matter) don't know what the heck is going on.

Yeah thanks for the social studies review...

 

Anyway, voting, in the USA, takes place every two years. This one was big because nearly 3/4 of the house and senate was running for re-election.

 

Of course this had absolutly NOTHING to do with the presidential elections. We vote for our president every four years.

I'm really surprised to find so many people who understand how important voting is. Most of my friends just blow off the elections every chance they get even though they sometimes know who they want to vote for! It makes my head want to explode.

 

Voting is such an important right that many people simply take for granted. Voters should do their best to inform themselves on the issues, and the people running before voting. Form your own opinions on the issues and then vote for the people you think are the best for the job. Try not to be pulled into the smear campaign nonsense and do your own research.

 

It's equally important to not be a party liner. Don't be a democrat or a republican just because your grandfather was..

 

One of the most important aspects of voting has to do with research. At least in my opinion.

 

I'm not a party liner and I never intend to be. I want to vote for the best person regardless of their party affiliation.

 

The biggest issues for me were the problems in the middle east (aka. WWIII), security, and to a lesser extent.. economics (which I hate mentioning since the first two are so much important right now).

 

I think everyone should vote but if you aren't willing to do the research than maybe you shouldn't. Why would you just blindly vote for people without bothering to learn anything about them anyway? Who you elect does effect you. Please don't take this right too lightly.

Damn,are me and TA the only ones under-18 here,or the voting age?

On this board? Maybe. Certianly not on TDN. From what I've seen the average age is about 14 here.

 

Thanks for the info, Chipmonker. Its actually a lot less confusing than thought...

I agree on the average age thing. But are ConfuciousNZ and I the only two minors (anyone under 18) who have posted in this topic?

I'd say people who are too young shouldn't be allowed to vote because they don't really know as much as adults do and are more "easy" to convince into one party (if you get what I mean).

Good point. Us minors are easy to lure into unsuspecting life-sized potholes.

 

Donald Rumsfield has been forcibly retired as a way for Bush to try to clear his party's downfall in the Elcetions...awww,the guy was a nice guy!

I just read yesterday's paper... I was mistaken, The democrats got BOTH Senate and the House of Rep.

 

The democrats got the 51st chair in the senate, giving them majority control...

Don't you just hate when things always go down to the 51st and 49th person/share? It's really ironic...

Well you have to consider the third party The democrats got 51, the republicans got 47, and the third party got 2.

What's the third party?I thought Americans only had two?

There is a third party, usually made up of several minor parties (I don't pay much attention.) But the dominate two are Republican and Democratic.

It was decided that Rumsfeld was going to leave about a month ago. It didn't have anything to do with the election. Well.. not in the sense you meant XD.

 

As for the third parties I'm sure there are quite a few. Like the Libertarian Party, the Socialist Party, etc, etc.

Heh. NZ has some sort of 'Legalise Cannabis' party, among various small parties.

Yeah, UK has three major parties - Labour [in charge], Conservatives, Liberal Democrats. Then three minor parties that are still doing well for themselves wiht a big following; Green Party, BNP [british National Party, against immigrants and ethnic majority power], and UKIP [uK Independance Party, anti-European]. Then a lot of Wales has Plaid Cymru. Yeah.

 

Then there are a load of minor parties with no chance, like 'Blair Must Go Party', 'Legalise Cannabis', etc.

i dont really get how the chair thingies work i dont use a chair at home i sit in my bed its the best place ever they should give them rolly chairs instead of just chairs because politics are so boring unless someones making fun of georgie w. bush or the govenator its not boring

I thought the UK was a monarchy.

It's like an Empirey thing,but they have the House Of Lords or something,which incluudes a Prime Minister.