First past the post, even if not got the most!

President-Elect Barack Obama’s “landslide” win with more than double the number of Electoral College votes than John McCain, is totally out of proportion to the number of votes each candidate received. With the destiny of Missouri’s 11 electoral college votes still to be decided, Senator Barack Obama has 65 million votes to Senator John McCain’s 57 million votes, yet Obama has 364 electoral college votes to McCain’s 162, a very disproportionate number, but that is how the system works in America, with whoever gets 270 electoral college votes the winner.

In 2000, the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Vice-President Al Gore actually got 48.38% of the votes, compared to George Bush’s 47.87% share of the vote. However, President George Bush crawled over the finish line with 271 electoral college votes to Al Gore’s 266 by controversially “winning” Florida’s 25 electoral college votes by only 537 actual votes, with the Supreme Court denying the Democrats a recount.

The American system is not unlike our first past the post system, where it is not unusual for a UK goverment to be elected with a minority of all votes cast, with 324 MP’s needed for a Commons majority of the 646 MP’s. Having said that both system’s seem to work, as proportional representation is likely not to give a majority mandate to govern. Nevertheless, for a Conservative country, the U.S.A. have swung dramatically in historical terms to the left, with the Democrats also winning majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. The great thing about Obama, was he was first past the post with the most, so has a genuine mandate to implement his policies, lets hope he does and the “change” he and his administration bring about is for the better and not just for change’s sake.