Hello Gerhard,

 BA>> The two major parties do everything they can to shut alternative
 BA>> candidates out of elections.

 GS> Isn't offering the choice between Trump and Clinton the best thing they
 GS> could do to help other candidates?

The two major parties (Democrat and Republican) are the only ones
that matter, as no other party has any real representation.  That is
why the vast majority of candidates choose to run either as a Democrat
or a Republican.

 BA>> The two major parties also will not allow a "None of these candidates"
 BA>> option on the ballots.

 GS> What for? Put your mark in between both candidates and you get counted as
 GS> invalid vote. But that doesn't change anything.

Several years ago, a candidate for governor of Louisiana legally
changed his name to "None Of The Above" - but the courts ruled it
as being unconstitutional, claiming his new legal name was deceptive.
As such, he was forced to use his former name on the ballot.  Had
he been a major candidate, the issue would have caused a ruckus.
But since he was a minor candidate, with very little chance of
winning, most people thought of it as being an amusement.

 >>> If you don't like the current situation and you choose to do nothing
 BA>> about it,
 >>> you're lazy or dumb.
 BA>> That group would include people who don't register to vote - well over
 BA>> half of the eligible population; and of the somewhat less than half
 GS> that
 BA>> does register only about half actually bother to vote.

 GS> Are trying to say that only 25% of those who are allowed to vote actually
 GS> do? Because the numbers I read are 23.8% of all adults voted for Trump and
 GS> 23.9% of all adults voted for Clinton.

Nobody is forced to vote.  Among those who did vote, Clinton
received almost 3 million more votes nationwide than her nearest
opponent, and totally swamped her opponent by a 2 to 1 margin in
the state of California.

 BA>> It's not that the
 BA>> people are stupid or lazy, it's that they won't vote for any of the
 BA>> candidates presented.

 GS> If half of the population doesn't vote, because they don't like the
 GS> candidates, why don't they get someone else on the ballot?

There are other candidates on the ballot besides the Democrat
and Republican.  But none of them being serious contenders.

 GS> Germany is electing a new (or more probably the same) federal parliament
in
 GS> September and to get on that ballot, you need 200 supporters from your
 GS> electoral ward if you run as an independent candidate or around 2000 per
 GS> state if you run as a list of people. Supporters means they have to fill
 GS> out a form (and one form only) and sign it and you take it to the local
 GS> authorities to get it verified and then present them and your program to
 GS> the election supervisor. And while this certainly isn't fun, it's
 GS> absolutely feasable for anyone who can get more than 0.5% of the votes.
 GS> We're going to see up to 33 lists on the ballots.

In order to run for US Representative, all one has to do is be of
legal age and pay a fee.  A citizen can choose any district he/she
wishes to run in, not necessarily the district he/she lives in.
There are 435 districts in the US to choose from, the term is for
two years.  The representative is the most important job in the US.

The president is the sixth most important job in the US.  But
he always wants to present himself as being the most important
person in the world.

--Lee

-- 
Laying Pipe Since '88

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