To all you Dopers who live in countries other than the U.S.:
What is your opinion of the American election? What is the general opinion of your governments and media?
I am asking because I have not heard, seen or read a lot about foreign reaction to one of the wildest elections in U.S. History.
Thanks
I’m afraid I have to admit up front that I do not know much about the American electoral system. I have read some stuff recently and discussed it with an American friend of mine.
I think it does seem odd that the result can take a week or a month to be decided. I don’t exactly understand how each state has a different weighting, although I can see the logic behind it.
I also think it is odd that if the result is not decided by an election, the electoral college comes into play. A person can win a higher proportion of the votes overall, but be voted out by the elected representatives. Or did I get it wrong.
Anyway, I guess we shall see.
Rick
The phrase “What is your opinion” in a question is a pretty good indication that the thread should be in the “In My Humble Opinion” forum. Moving it as we speak.
RickQ, it does not usually take a week or a month to find out who wins. This is why this election is so different. It’s that close.
Rick: The electoral college tally, not the number of popular votes, decides who gets the election. Normally, the electoral college mirrors the popular vote, yet another reason this election is so strange.
I am so sick of it! I couldn’t care less who wins. Hell, I couldn’t care less if the country gets invaded by packs of rabid dogs. If I hear the words “Bush” or “Gore” one more time, I’m going to hurl.
This is even worse than the Clinton/Lewinsky thing. Just more American politics shoved down my throat. Meanwhile, I’m pretty fuzzy on who’s running in the election in my own country. Maybe they should move to the states where they can get some coverage.
The election has been covered pretty well in Australia, though it’s essentially the Presidential component, very little about the Senate and Congress and less about the Governors.
It’s the lead story in The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review and probably all the mainstream dailies. I reckon if Australia was nuked it probably wouldn’t make the lead article of the US press 
An example below:
http://news.com.au/0,4780,1396041%5E401,00.html
A fair bit of publicity is about the US networks calling the election as a Bush win too early and their Gore/undecided/Bush/undecided fluctuations in Florida.
At work yesterday we found 8 of 20 members of staff had checked the results on the web, mainly CNN.
The Electoral College is a bit amusing, I mean if its votes are, to all extents and purposes already known and committed and the College never actually meets (is that correct?), why bother going through the motions?
What I don’t understand is the “winner take all” element. IMHO the argument that it benefits the smaller states is a bit of a misnomer. What gives the smaller states the benefit (as I see it) is the fact they have more College votes per capita, not in the way they are allocated.
If you have a state that always votes one way, the risk is that their votes are taken for granted, until dissatisfaction reaches a magority. I think proportional voting would allow a stronger protest and/or third party vote.
While this might be seen as a reason for the GOP/Dem to disallow it, it actually can work in their favour as they get a reality check earlier and can decide to can get their policy platforms accordingly. It also gives some reward to people who aren’t in the magority and might encourage higher turn-outs. This would be a good thing (however it was achieved)
As much as I hate to admit it, America has quite a bit of influence here politically. Especially with our dollar so low. Australia is in many ways a welfare state, and the thought of Bush getting in is quite scary as our ultra-conservatives will use (or at least try to use) this as a platform for their own agendas, and un fortunately too much of our foreign investments are tied up in the US for us to piss off your government. Ironically, we are (or at least we were a few years ago when I learned this statistic) one of the few countries that the US actually owes money to…
But basically the possibility of someone who belives in the death penalty, small government and almost no social security is chilling, to say the least. It goes against quite a lot of what our nation is based on.
That would have been my two cents, if I hadn’t spent it on beer at the Unibar earlier this evening.
While the American system may seem odd and confusing to some, just try getting to grips with the Icelandic one! Not even Cecil could understand that little piece of mathematical nonsence. It doesn’t matter at all who gets the most votes, cause we have like a million little clauses built in, including one called “the drifter” that only one man in the country is said to understand, and he’s head of the electoral committee almost all of the time.
Oh, and he says it can’t be explained. God help us when he dies.
The whole thing was apparently cooked up one year when all the big players on congress (or Althingi as we call it) decided they wanted another term, come hell or high water. Thus the system was built, clauses and all, as an ever standing monument to a failed and corrupt electoral system. How’s that for out-America-ing, America? My father (an ex assistant Prime Minister) says the “drifter” thing, which quite often let’s a person with almost no votes get in by pure mathamatical coincidence, was especially made to keep one very unpopular person on for another term. He was needed for a majority vote on the new and “improved” system.
Of course all this was before my time, but one thing I know all too well from my own experience is that votes from the nation’s capital count significantly less (2-3 times less in fact) than from the outskirts of the country.
The reasoning behind that being: “Reykjavik has half the population, if we let them decide who wins the election the interests of the farmers and fishermen on the outskirts of our tiny island won’t matter at all”. Fine, too bad that farming is subsidised by the government and loses it more money than you would have thought possible by something that calls itself a “profession”.
In fact I could go home to Iceland, buy myself a few sheep and a piece of grass and live off a nice subsidy check if it wasn’t such a damned boring life.
So, all in all, I must say the Chinese system (I currently live in Beijing) is much more efficient than ours. Sure, there’s only one party, but at least all the “voters” have just as little say about who’s in power, no discrimination here! 
As far as the American system is concerned, it may all seem pretty bleak to ya’ll at the moment, but try living with Icelandic politics for a while and see how you like them apples!
p.s. if anyone can shed further light on the electoral process in Iceland, as I know as little about it as any other Icelander, please let me know. If you have knact for mathematics and corruption you may even succeed our current head of electoral committees (in plural).
p.p.s. excuse my long and all together not very interesting insight on the matter, I promise to do better once I sober up.
In Britain, although the US election is pretty unavoidable on the news, most people are more concerned about travel, what with the massive railway works, major floods and possible fuel protests.
Since the railways are running hours late, I had to cancel a trip to London. So I watched our election special on BBC TV, which was fairly informative. I had to go to bed just after Florida went from Gore to undecided.
By then I had gathered:
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the Republicans are likely to keep control of both Houses, so it will matter a lot if Bush wins (since he can get his policies thru much easier)
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the US TV networks rely on exit polls and produce early forecasts
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Oregon must use a slow method of polling
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someone ought to bribe a member of the electoral college (mainly so you can drop this unnecessary level of voting)
My views from 3,000 miles away are:
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far too much money was spent on the election (presumably both candidates are now vulnerable to pressure from their wealthy backers)
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Bush is not very bright, and pretty right wing by UK standards
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Gore was scared to use Clinton too much, and couldn’t combine his better grasp of the issues with some personality
I think US elections are insane. I always have, actually, but this time I live in the States, and have no choice but to pay attention to the process. That said:
You have way too many things to vote for at one time. How can you possibly learn everything you need to know to make a decision?
Newscasters shouldn’t try to predict the results from exit polls and the like. Why can’t you just wait until clear results are in? I don’t mind updates, but what’s the point of staying on the air just to say, “Nothing’s changed in five minutes, but now we’re predicting…”?
I don’t understand your registration process (at least in CA). I’m so glad this thing is over, so that I don’t have to say to one more person, “No, I’m not registered, because I’m not a citizen.” I figure I was asked if I was registered in Pasadena about 50 times this year. Why not go door-to-door? Why not (as Canada is now) indicate your willingness to vote on your tax forms? And why do students living out of state have to send in absentee ballots? Why can’t they just vote in whatever state they live in now?
My thoughts on my own government? Just as corrupt as your government, I’m sure, but way easier to elect. I just walk in, check one box, and walk out. The media are almost as bad, although I don’t think CBC bothers to make predictions during the counting. They just report what ridings have gone to which parties.