Vickie Said:

It seems like my vote doesn't count, only the super delegates vote count. What do you think?

We Answered:

Yup! Got an e-mail yesterday that said that a superdelegate for West Virginia endorsed Obama. This is after the state voted for Hillary ( 67%.) Thats what it said. I haven't checked on this but I believe it. Aren't the delegates supposed to go along with the voters? This whole democratic system sucks.

Nellie Said:

Can you explain how my vote will count in November?

We Answered:

My husband once lost an election by 2 votes - after the polls closed we had about 20 people call saying they were sorry that they didn't get to the polls - did we win???? After they heard we lost - the response was the same from every one of them, "oh, I guess my vote would have counted".

Lorraine Said:

As a Democrat in kansas how do i make my vote count?

We Answered:

I'm in the same boat: I live in Kansas also. But what I've been thinking about doing is making little flyers that say "Educate yourself about all of the Presidential candidates, beyond what is in the media (the media can be biased on either side, and often twists things to sell papers, ect.), then choose the one you feel would do the best job." and then write that I chose Barack Obama and if they would like to find out why I did, just go to his website barackobama.com or read his book "The Audacity Of Hope." and decide for themselves. That way I'm not forcing my opinion on them, I'm just making a suggestion that they take a look at everyone (Obama in particular, but also the others), regardless of how they usually vote.

I have never voted before this upcoming election because I always felt like we were shuffling around the same thing. But after reading Obama's book and listening to several of his speeches, as well as looking at the issues he supports, I believe he is a very honest person (particularly for a politician) which would be better than what we have now and have had in the recent past.

I especially like that he wants to help the middle and poor classes of our society, instead of just the upper 1% (the last tax breaks mostly benefited the rich) and he wants to listen to what we have to say and make policies based on what he hears from the majority of Americans that he talks to.

I also like the fact that he doesn't accept lobbyist group's money or gifts. In fact he helped pass a bill that requires all politicians to disclose the amount of money/gifts they get and from which lobbyist groups, and limits the amount of the contributions that they can take in from lobbyists.

Sorry, I'm going on and on, I just wanted to put a few reasons why I like him in there, for those who don't know much about him beyond the media's reports.

If you'd like I have a yahoo group called kansans_for_obama, where I'm hoping to get more people together to help get the word out about what issues he supports and what he wants to do about them.

Tara Said:

How does my vote count if electoral votes decide who becomes President?

We Answered:

Your vote counts in determining who the electors in your State vote for. You cast a vote for electors pledged to the election of a particular person. The Governor of your state will issue certificates of ascertainment to electors that are pledged to the election of the person that the people indicated a preference for in the general election. Of course, only 24 states have laws which require those electors to vote for the person the people preferred.

Frances Said:

Each state has electoral votes and they decide which candidate wins, how does my vote count toward anything? ?

We Answered:

The electoral system is confusing to a lot of people so you are not the only one. The way I describe it: The electoral college was set up by our founding fathers due to the fact that; if the popular vote was the system of electing, most politicians (Federal) would only need to campaign in states with large populations (Atlanta, New York and so on), so to make it more fair and give the smaller states a bigger stake in elections the electoral method was devised.

Although not perfect (as witnessed by the Gore vs Bush 2000, Gore won the popular vote and Bush won the electoral vote) largely due to the fact that only a handful of states have a legal mandate for the electoral voter to vote the will of the people, and that is the popular vote. Another group of states only have the pledge by the electoral voter to vote the will of the people, with about a third (the remaining states) having no promise at all to vote the will of the people. So the electoral vote can be manipulated.

The way I look at, when voting in the local elections I consider that the candidate may be an electoral voter someday, and weigh that thought with all the other issues of consideration. There is a problem with my method though, that is, not all electoral voters are politicians.Why? I don't know the answer to that one and am still trying to find out.

To sum it up, we don't have a fair voting system, but it better than most and won't change unless we educate ourselves and continue to expect a better way, typically, the American way.

Ramon Said:

Does my individual vote count in the overall election?

We Answered:

this question has two answers.

first of all, yes, your vote does count towards the "overall" election. every vote is counted, and therefore, each vote counts. but this is where it gets tricky.

the second answer is this:

once all of the votes are counted, the majority party takes the votes. and that's where the electoral college comes into play. the electoral college is a means of establishing "ballance of power" between states, so that a state has equal representation based on it's population and size. each state has a set number of "votes" that go towards the final race. the majority party wins all of the votes that that state has, and thats how you get a red or blue state. the ENTIRE state vote goes democrat or republican.

so, assume a state has a population of ten million and they are assigned five electoral votes. if three people million vote democrat, four million vote republican, and three million just dont vote, then the republican party wins the electoral votes since they have the majority. therefore, all of the votes of the democrats technically aren't counted anymore, and five votes go towards the main race.

each state's electoral votes are counted, and the party with the most electoral votes wins the election.

this is somewhat tricky because even though the system is supposed to "ballance the power," it is possible for a party to actually recieve a higher POPULAR vote, which is the actuall number of votes, but still have the lower electoral representation.
all that really means is that someone can get more individual votes, but still lose the race becuase the differences in the states' electoral values.

so to answer your question, your vote counts up to a point. once the electoral votes kick in, the rest is up to the other states.

Irma Said:

Would a provisional ballot vote count for the primaries?

We Answered:

you did the right thing in registering otherwise the vote is dismissed.
in this case, your vote does count!