[EM] Media references on our nutty little election

[Rob Lanphier]

Doing an AltaVista News search on "electoral system" turns up some
interesting results:

Electoral System: Time for an Upgrade?  (ZD Net News):
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=2306279&ern=y

   "Look into preferential voting. First-past-the-post voting not only
    makes it "Mission: Impossible" to be a third party; three-horse races
    can lead to the bizarre situation where a candidate with less than 50
    percent of the vote (such as Bill Clinton in 1992) can end up in the
    White House."

Abroad, Fascination Is Mixed With Official Embarrassment (Washington Post)
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=2306597&ern=y

   "Many other countries found the electoral vote system hard to follow.
    At a big election night party in London, a befuddled British
    politician approached an American and asked, "Where is this electoral
    college?" 

World Baffled by U.S. Election Cliffhanger (Reuters)
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=2306067&ern=y

    ``They have an idiotic system of government invented 200 years ago,''
    said analyst Christoph Bertram, head of Germany's Research Institute
    for International Affairs.

    ``Why should it work?'' he asked in an interview with Reuters last
    week.  ``You may have a situation where the candidate who wins in the
    electoral college may not win the popular vote -- it is an
    extraordinary political system not to be emulated by anyone.''


Rob Lanphier
robla at eskimo.com
http://www.eskimo.com/~robla