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George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879), The County Election, 1852.
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Anyway, here in the greatest democracy in the entire world, we do not elect the president and vice-president by popular vote. The voters in individual states elect members of the Electoral College, who then elect the president and vice-president. All states but Nebraska and Maine have winner-take-all laws, whereby the candidates who win the majority of votes are allotted all of the states' electoral votes. Therefore, in very close elections, it is possible that candidates who receive a majority of the popular vote could lose the electoral vote.
Each state has its own rules for elections and voting processes. The voting systems used by the various states are a decidedly mixed bag, and, with each election, there are problems and controversy, some of which nearly always end up in in court. If you recall the hanging chads controversy in Florida in the Bush/Gore election in 2000, you know that the US Supreme Court elected George W Bush. It seems to me that uniform rules and processes at least for national offices, such as president, vice-president, and the members of Congress, might be a better idea, with the entire country using the same processes, voting machines or ballots, rules for early voting, etc., but that is not likely to happen any time soon, surely not in my lifetime.
So here we are in this year 2012 better off than in 1852, but with a long way to go before we the people are confident of free and fair elections.
Painting from Picturing America.
Besides commenting on American electioneering in general, The County Election records a particular political event. As many of Bingham’s contemporaries would have known, the painting depicts Election Day 1850 in Saline County, Missouri, when the artist himself was running for a place in the State Legislature.Note: I corrected the date of the election depicted in the painting and changed the link to a source with more accurate and detailed information.
"I'm not aware that Republicans try to suppress women's votes"
ReplyDelete...unless they're not biological women.
http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/11/tea-party-targets-trans-voters.html
>:-(
Oh no! What dirty scheme will the Tea Partiers think of next?
DeleteI don't think there's any law against voting drunk. It might actually help I suppose :) But if you turned up so paralytic you couldn't stand up properly or you caused a loud enough ruckus I'm sure officials could legitimately throw you out.
ReplyDeleteThe gentlemen in the picture who are imbibing look as though they've voted already and have decided to follow that up by sitting down and relaxing with a drink.
Cathy, if you click on the picture to enlarge, you will see a man in line wearing a straw hat who is literally being held up by another.
Deleteoh yes, I see the "tired and emotional" gentleman in the line. :)
DeleteSome of the people in Florida who waited in line for several hours to vote must have felt somewhat like the man who is being held up. I saw pictures of elderly people and couples with babies and toddlers in strollers waiting in line to vote. That demonstrates a determination to exercise the franchise that is admirable.
DeleteOne certainly can't point to a decline in civility looking back, for instance, to the slurs and slanders, in the 1828 campaign, on Rachel Jackson.
ReplyDeleteWhat's different about this election is the obscene amount of money spent on campaigns. My theory says that once you reach a certain level of obscenity in throwing money around, the amount raised and spent does not make a difference, which is, in the end, cold comfort.
DeleteI don't know about other states, but in New York, and I think Texas too, the bars and liquor stores are supposed to be closed on Election Day while the polls are open. If you want to vote drunk, you should have bought your Wild Turkey yesterday.
ReplyDeleteGreat choice of paintings! I think I saw this in the original in St. Louis years ago. I wish I had thought of it.
Well one can always stock up on booze and still be drunk on election day. I sort of wish I could see getting drunk as a solution to get me through this stressful day.
DeleteI found the painting at Wiki when I was looking up info on US elections, and I knew I had to use it on my blog. Thanks to a reader, I learned that the information about the painting at Wiki is incorrect. I'll check to see if there's a way to let them know, because they're trying hard to have accurate info.
Looks to me like a few inebriated folks are being helped to the polls in this painting, and that there is a lot of last minute campaigning and registering that would never be tolerated these days.
ReplyDeleteApparently, all the voter had to do at the time the painting was done was to swear that he had not already voted. If you've seen what happened in Florida with early voting, the Republican officials there seem to be trying to make it as difficult as possible for the "wrong kind" of people to vote.
Delete