For me it is the concept of registering to vote. I am citizen so I have the right to vote automatically and only thing I need to provide is some accepted ID.

  • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 hour ago

    Electoral college is fucking weird

    That you disallow prisoners to vote, but a felon can run as a candidate

    That you end up in situation where there are hours long lines and you don’t have one station per, say, 1000 people at most

    Registering to vote is weird, but that is i understand mostly a consequence of not having countrywide ID standard. In my country you’re automatically registered where you live, and IDs are free of charge and mandatory to have (not driving license or passport. there are fees for these)

    Election isn’t on weekend, there’s zero reason why it couldn’t be or it could be made national holiday. There was even free public transit for election day in my city, but that one was paid by the city

    That some of people (republicans) seem to be into politics in the same way ultras seem to be into football, it’s still fucked up but i’ve seen it in other places so it’s not that weird by now

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
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      18 minutes ago

      I am not American, but I believe the reason a felon can run is that the founding fathers didn’t want peoples political rivals to be able to bring charges to stop someone being president.

  • Rimu@piefed.social
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    2 hours ago

    Being registered “as a republican/democrat” is weird.

    Electoral college is weird AF

    One party trying to stop people voting is weird.

    Queuing for hours to vote is weird.

    Purging voter rolls is weird.

    Rallies are weird.

    Townhalls are weird.

    Flags everywhere is weird.

    The orange one is super weird.

    • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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      1 hour ago

      Electoral college is weird AF

      I think it’s less unique than people think. In France, there is an electoral college specifically for the Sénat, which is a secondary legislative chamber compared to the Assemblée Nationale. They can amend law proposals after they are submitted by the Assemblée, but in case of conflicts, it’s the Assemblée that decides.

      The college is made of people locally elected in various types of previous local elections. I think part of the reasons for this system is to have a representation of every locations that is not only proportional to the population. For example to prevent populated areas from dictating laws to unpopulated areas that don’t make sense for their local circumstances (typically around urbanism and transportation).

  • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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    21 minutes ago

    The PACs. I think this practice should be considered blatant corruption in any democratic system as it enables large corporations and wealthy individuals to predetermine which candidate or party has even the slightest chance in elections. In my home country, of course, there are private political funds as well but those are not nearly as important in our system as there is solid public funding for political parties based on past election results. I might be wrong but I always thought that the insane amount of private money that fuels US elections boils down to the US being a plutocracy rather than a democracy.

  • harlatan@lemmy.world
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    23 minutes ago

    Gerrymandering. i dont know a second democracy where such a blatant version of voter suppression is allowed.

  • Libb@jlai.lu
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    2 hours ago

    Non US citizens, what’s the weirdest thing about USA elections, compared to elections in your country?

    I will probably get downvoted to oblivion for that but here it is: that one of your candidate was not put in jail already and is still legally able to run for presidency (note that I did not name said candidate, I would not want to influence US voters ;)

    • plactagonicOP
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      2 hours ago

      When I see how some of our politicians can run away from justice, it isn’t that weird.

      But our justice system is truly independent from the political one.

      • Libb@jlai.lu
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        2 hours ago

        True your two remarks.

        And we also have a few very questionable representatives/candidate to whatever elections around here, but so far none that has managed to get away from a failed coup at the previous election — sorry, it was unintentional but I may have hinted at the candidate I was surprised was still able to run tor presidency ;)

  • nimpnin
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    16 minutes ago

    If nobody reaches 270 electoral votes, rather than having a second round, the congress decides who wins. FPTP in general. And that most states would give all electoral votes to a candidate with 51% of the vote.

  • vividspecter@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago
    • FPTP voting system

    • Voting isn’t compulsory so a lot depends upon on riling up your base

    • Voting is on a Tuesday instead of a weekend (or a public holiday)

    • Political parties draw up the electoral boundaries instead of an independent body

    • The absurdly long leadup to an election

    • The amount of money thrown around

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I mean yes, but the real disenfranchisement comes from making sure the lines are hours long for the only polling station in your county (while every suburban school is a polling station in rich neighborhoods).

      We had laws against that (not that they were followed), but the Supreme Court struck them down because “they weren’t needed anymore”.

  • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The entire process of the electoral college makes no sense at all. The only thing it accomplishes is making some peoples votes better than others. Which is so fucked up if you think about it.

    That one party (the Republicans, just to be clear about that) tries to invalidate votes and tries to make voting as hard as possible AND THEN gets away with it.

    That for the last 8 years one party keeps nominating a criminal who keeps admitting that he wants to fuck the country into the dirt. And people still vote for him. Every country has its idiots, but they usually are in the 5%-10% range. In the US it’s almost 50% of the voters. That is remarkable.

    Oh, and the two party system sucks, too. They are not the same, fuck everyone who says they are. But it still does suck.

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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      1 hour ago

      for republicans, if you don’t toe the line, you’re out. no longer part of the club. only 100% unwavering loyalty and fealty to dear great leader will allow you a seat at the table. it’s a cult.

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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    42 minutes ago

    I wouldn’t know where to start. Maybe the electoral college and that nobody updated this in centuries. Makes it borderline undemocratic IMO. Especially the winner-takes-it-all formula that makes you have exactly 2 parties, with none of them really incentivised to do what the citizens want. At least on a national level. And the people can choose to either vote for one of them, whether they like them or not, or throw away their vote.

    And the next thing are maybe the people themselves. I can’t imagine how half a population would like a convicted criminal, who’d like to make everything more expensive for them and doesn’t like democracy (which is kinda something the USA is proud of, historically) and would like to get rid of it. Which is completely detrimental to how and why the entire country was founded. And I mean you kind of have to be a racist yourself to like other fascists/racists? Or have some pretty severe issues in your life. I can imagine like 20-30% of racists around, or people who’ve been fooled by some charismatic character. But not half.

  • flamingo_pinyata
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    2 hours ago

    For me it is the concept of registering to vote. I am citizen so I have the right to vote automatically and only thing I need to provide is some accepted ID.

    This but also that in some US states you don’t need a valid ID to vote

    • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Your signature is your ID.

      When you register to vote, your signature is placed on file.

      When you go to vote, you sign in and your signature is compared to the registration.

      If it matches, you can vote. If it doesn’t match, you can prove who you are or cast a provisional ballot pending identification.

      • flamingo_pinyata
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        55 minutes ago

        The system seems to work - voting fraud doesn’t seem to be a huge issue in the US.

        It’s just that it’s so counterintuitive to me, making sure that everyone voted only once and only in their own name is essential. But somehow you managed to do it without requiring a formal ID document.

        • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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          43 minutes ago

          I’d think the signature would be way harder to fake than an ID. Nobody signs my name like I do, but I bet there are plenty of bad ID photos that kinda/sorta look like me.

  • amlor@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The fact that there is a chance that the fascist will lose. Unimaginable in Russia.