Questions about the voting system in USA

[Jeunemaitre]

I'm not entirely too sure on this, but I believe what happens next is that the candidates with the most support (most likely Dean and Kerry) will go on to a nationwide vote, and the nominee for the Democrats will be chosen. That person will then choose a vice-president running mate, and go up against Dubya in the election this November.

Disclaimer: I don't have a degree in Political science, nor did I stay at a holiday inn express last night. It's been seven or eight years since I was studying the electoral process, and I haven't thought of the details much lately, so take the following with a grain of salt.

Count Duckula
I think you're pretty much right in your description; the only thing I think I can add is that the nationwide vote you're refering to is accomplished at the National Convention. The primaries do serve to show which candidates have the most national support (one state at a time), but they also serve to determine the delegates from each state that will attend the national convention. These delegates are then responsible for casting their votes (similar to the process of the electoral college) for the standing candidates, reassigning votes were necessitated by the drop-out of a candidate.

Jarulf
When you refer to the oddities of people voting in groups, after discussed opinions and reviewing the results of other voting groups, are you refering to the staggered primary process, or are you refering to the caucuses used in several states instead of the more familiar secret ballot primary elections? The caucus, if I'm not wrong, grew out of the "Town meetings" held in earlier times where local government issues were dealt with. It facilitated communication in a time when the horse was the fastest way to spread news. Caucuses are only used in the primary election process, commonly in midwestern states (I think). Similar to the differing classification of 46 states and 4 commonwealths making up the 50 United "States," "caucus" is a different name for a slightly different process arriving at the same end product.

One other thing: I'm not trying to get into an argument I don't belong in, but calling one of the Admins a troll is not what I would consider as the wise choice. I'm not sure what in your post set Occhi off, but returning a harsh tone and labeling him troll is not going to improve this discussion, and dismissing him is not going to bring the thread back to the electoral process of the US.


edit: fixa da format, and da spellin, and the verb tense, and parallel structure