Did you know the United States President is not elected by the people? Could we say there are similarities and of course many differences between the Australian and United States electoral systems? Stephen Marantelli who is a barrister in his day job is also an amateur historian. He has many stories to tell and our Rotary club was privileged to hear about the system for electing an American president.
As with Australia, America has two houses in their federal government and each state is granted two seats in the senate and seats in the house of representatives proportionally to their population. When presidential elections are held these seats are won or lost by the representatives of the various parties but of course mostly by the Republican and Democratic party. When the federal election is concluded, and you see the electoral map with all the blue and red states, it is assumed that the presidential nominee of the party which has won the majority of seats (270 seats for a majority) is then elected president.
In fact, however, all the seat winners elect the president soon after and it is possible for them to change their vote away from their previously declared presidential choice. Interestingly and perhaps fortunately for civil harmony, while such changes have occurred in the past it has never been to the degree necessary to change the appointed President.
Stephen also took a few minutes to tell the club about his book "The Three Brothers: When George Washington and Edward Barton sat down to dinner".
The club was delighted to show appreciation to Stephen by donating $100 to Australian Rotary Health.
Mark Howlett
Meeting Chair
