>> We do not have federal elections in this country.  We have state   
    >> elections.  And local elections.  But never federal elections.   
      
    >> In the case of presidential elections, it is really a matter of   
    >> 50 separate state elections - plus one municipal election.  As such,   
    >> it is not really a federal election at all.  Even though the office   
    >> of the presidency is a federal (or national) office.   
      
    DAG>     I wonder how the electoral college figures into this.   
    DAG>     Vestigial remnant of a more ignorant time [severely   
    DAG>     debatably, I'll give it that, but at least we have   
    DAG>     access to better information now] that it is.  They   
    DAG>     are federal employees, no?  That pretty much renders   
    DAG>     all of the states' vote totals moot, as they've now   
    DAG>     been seen to occasionally go with whatever the hell   
    DAG>     they want, as opposed to representing their masses of   
    DAG>     voters.   
      
    No, they are not federal employees. They are chosen by the   
    parties. In fact, no officer of the federal government is   
    allowed to be an elector. When you vote for president his name   
    may be on the ballot, but you are actually voting for the slate   
    of electors pledged to him.   
      
    And you are right, they don't have to vote for the one they were   
    pledged to. Sometimes they don't. But almost all the time they   
    do.   
      
      
   BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn   
      
   ... "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." Will Rogers.   
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