Some "Fun Facts" About Elections in the United States

• A majority of the voting-age population does not vote in most
elections in the United States?
• Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, when first elected president,
each received the votes of only about one quarter of those eligible
to vote in his sizable electoral victory, Barack Obama received the
votes of 33 percent of those eligible and 30 percent of voting-age
adults?
• most members of Congress have no effective opposition in running
for renomination, and some have no opponents in the general
election?
• More than 90 percent of members of the House of Representatives
and 80 percent of senators were re-elected in the period from 1960
through 2008.
• No third-party presidential candidate has received any electoral
votes since 1972?
• There were more ballots discarded or under-counted in New York
City and Chicago in the 2000 election than there were disputed
ballots in the controversial Florida presidential vote that year.
• About $5 billion was spent on federal elections in 2008? .
• Information about how elections are conducted in the United
States is so fragmentary that the government does not know how
many people were turned away at the polls, how long people stood
in lines waiting to vote, how many ballots were voided.or simply
not counted, and how many voting machines malfunctioned.
• It took more than seven months in 200S for officials and the courts
to determine the winner of the election in Minnesota for a seat in the
U.S. Senate?
• The average length of time that presidential candidates appeared
on the evening news shows of the major broadcast networks in the
last three elections was about seven seconds?
• More than 50 percent of candidate advertising in recent federal
elections contained some negative reference to an opponents
character or policy positions?

• More than $200 million was spent on advertising during the 2008
nomination process, with the Democrats spending more than
twice as much as the Republicans? (BUT REMEMBER, Liberals are supposed to be the savior of this nation... Obviously it is not working)
• Only about one-third of the people can name the member of
Congress who represents them during nonelectoral periods?


These statements were pulled from the Stephen Wayne's book "Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election?".