Questions tagged [united-states]
Questions relating to the government or the politics of the United States of America
5,558
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Did the Supreme Court have a time limit on responding to Texas v Pennsylvania et. al?
In the lawsuit filed by Texas against Pennsylvania and other states, SCOTUS did request the defendants to respond by December 10, 2020, but they did not say until December 11 that they were not going ...
3
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2answers
265 views
The Texas lawsuit and contingent election
With filing the Texas lawsuit it becomes increasingly clear that the whole post-election strategy of Trump was to shift the presidential election to the House of Representatives with the help of the ...
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2answers
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Time to reconsider the secret ballot methodology?
Question: Has there ever been any surveys asking people if they think the secret ballot methodology currently used today is still a good idea in modern times?
I'd love to ask why we have not explored ...
asked Dec 10 '20 at 22:28
President Bernie Sanders
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10
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0answers
135 views
What is the US Supreme Court case with the highest number of US states party to the case?
Sometimes US Supreme Court cases have had more than one US state as a party, e.g. in Massachusetts v. EPA
The petitioners were the states of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, ...
26
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3answers
5k views
How are states (Texas + many others) allowed to be suing other states?
It has come to my attention that there were many US states, being led by Texas, that are suing multiple key battleground states such as Michigan and Georgia for the way that they conduct their ...
2
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1answer
282 views
When was the date of the Electoral College meeting established by law and how often was the meeting not held on that date?
When was the date of the Electoral College meeting established by law and how often was the meeting not held on that date?
The question is motivated by the suggestion in the last lawsuit filed with ...
19
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4answers
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Is there a difference between a tie-breaker and a regular vote?
In the United States Senate, if there is a tie in a vote, the vice president breaks that tie. According to the senate.gov website, the vice president cannot vote except when breaking a tie.
Is there ...
2
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1answer
116 views
Why don't we see more independent presidential candidates in the US? [duplicate]
As I understand it a person does not actually have to be either the Democrat or the Republican nominee to run for president in the US, why then are independent candidates, at least for that position ...
4
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1answer
228 views
Why has Washington DC trended more Democratic over time?
It is well known that Washington, DC is very heavily Democratic. It is more Democratic than any actual state. However, since 1976 or so, DC has usually (though not always) been more Dem-leaning than ...
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0answers
201 views
Why are most presidents Protestants while none of the judges at the Supreme Court are Protestants? [closed]
Most of the American Presidents were Protestants. This is somehow expected as Protestants are the largest religious group in the USA.
But none of the judges at the Supreme Court are Protestants which ...
0
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1answer
143 views
Who are the third party electors
This question is about the electoral college.
From what I understand, the way the electoral college works is that each party appoints electors for their party, based on state-specific rules that ...
9
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2answers
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Have Texas voters ever selected a Democrat for President?
This last American election gave me the impression that Texas voters were awfully close to electing a liberal, which is something to me that would be incredible.
Apparently Biden got 46% of the vote ...
8
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4answers
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Did Biden underperform the polls because some voters changed their minds after being polled?
Polls leading up to the election showed Biden with a commanding lead, averaged between 7 and 9 points depending on your source. But the result was Biden by 4.5.
I have a theory that some Republicans ...
1
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1answer
132 views
Shift by precinct NYC 2016 to 2020?
I read a tweet from the Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman saying that NYC had a larger shift towards Trump than any state in the country. It shifted 7.4 points towards Trump compared to his 1st ...
3
votes
1answer
142 views
Has California released its certified presidential election results online?
The media is reporting that California has certified its results for the presidential election.
However, I can’t find the certified vote totals online. A quick check on the California Secretary of ...
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0answers
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Could Vermont and New Hampshire be merged into one state? [duplicate]
I have read a proposal to merge Vermont and New Hampshire into a state called "Montana Verde", or "Green Mountain". (It is pronounced like the state of Montana plus VER-day.) The ...
25
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8answers
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Why did the US invade Iraq for weapons of mass destruction but not North Korea [duplicate]
Why can the US invade Iraq for weapons of mass destruction but not North Korea who have confirmed nuclear weapons? Are they more scared of NK?
13
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3answers
4k views
Was there ever an election in the US that was overturned by the courts due to fraud?
Was there ever an election in the US (state or federal-level) whose result was overturned by the courts due to vote fraud?
If so, what was the most recent such instance?
4
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1answer
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What would a “signature audit” accomplish in the Georgia election?
POTUS and the Governor Kemp of Georgia have both requested a "signature audit" of the absentee ballot envelopes used in the Nov 3 Presidential election. Link
What would such an audit ...
3
votes
1answer
351 views
Did House Democrats “win the Electoral College” in 2020?
House Democrats appear to have underperformed Biden again. This is the third time in a row that Democrats got a lower % of the two-party vote than their presidential candidate, though the difference ...
0
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1answer
55 views
On what basis was the 2011 HHS override of and FDA decision overruled by a federal judge?
A Politico article on the FDA and its questionable legal independence (from the executive) mentions that:
in 2011, the diminished autonomy of the FDA was made visibly apparent by a clash within the ...
3
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1answer
220 views
Can the US President unilaterally override the FDA and approve the COVID vaccine?
According to Politico:
President Donald Trump and his deputies are privately admonishing Food and Drug Administration officials for not moving faster to authorize promising coronavirus vaccines — a ...
4
votes
1answer
142 views
Difference between Chief Medical Advisor and Surgeon General
This morning Joe Biden announced that he's offered the position of Chief Medical Advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the cabinet position Surgeon General to Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served in the same ...
23
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1answer
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Have Georgia election officials offered an explanation for the alleged “smoking gun” at the State Farm Arena? [closed]
Now hitting Fox News, yesterday's Georgia Senate committe(s) hearings are apparently providing new ammunition to governor Kemp to request another signature audit:
Gov. Brian Kemp, the Georgia ...
43
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1answer
6k views
Why was the mail-in ballot rejection rate (seemingly) 100% in two counties in Texas in 2016?
ABC has a fairly detailed analysis of mail-in ballot rejection rated in the 2016 and 2018 elections. A couple of Texas counties stand out on the map they show as having 100% rejection rate, namely Val ...
6
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0answers
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How many mail-in votes were disqualified for failing the signature match test in 2020?
According to an article published by The Atlantic in late October:
A political scientist at Carroll College, working on behalf of plaintiffs challenging Ohio’s signature-matching law, found that 97 ...
0
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0answers
54 views
Trump pardons…Trump? [duplicate]
If Gerald Ford was able to preemptively pardon Richard Nixon, what would stop Trump from doing that to himself? Why doesn't every president do that, just in case?
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1answer
201 views
Does the Secret Service consider Curse of Tippecanoe a threat to President-elect Biden? [closed]
The Curse of Tippecanoe is the belief that US presidents who were elected in years that are evenly divisible by 20 are under threat of (violent) death in office. Despite it is only a belief that ...
22
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1answer
4k views
Can a US president give preemptive pardons?
The Trump administration discusses the possibility of pardoning Donald Trump, his family, and loyal members of the administration for crimes that they have not been charged for. Can the president ...
5
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1answer
186 views
Is more US federal Congress business decided by inaction now?
The US Congress can effectively stop business by choosing not to hear/vote on it. This way legislators don't have to go on record as actively opposing something, it was just never brought up.
Is this ...
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3answers
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Correlation between county-level college education level and swing towards Democrats from 2016-2020?
On the Census.gov website, there is a feature to see how much of a population has a bachelor's degree or higher in education. I want to see the county-level correlation between how much of the ...
2
votes
2answers
288 views
Is it economically viable to replace property taxes and consumption taxes with local income taxes? What are the downsides of such a proposal?
In the United States, most counties and cities levy property taxes and consumption taxes to fund local budgets.
Consumption taxes are regressive, and property taxes can be burdensome on senior ...
4
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1answer
213 views
Why did the Republican shift in South Texas not fully show down-ballot?
I was looking at House results for the 2020 election, and I found one thing that stands out to me. When comparing the 2020 House elections to the 2020 presidential election in South Texas, the shift ...
6
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1answer
361 views
Do other nations consider all USA politics to be conservative, and if so why?
I've heard from a few sources claims that people outside the US consider all US politics conservative. One person going to far as to say that to non-US individuals our politics range from "very ...
1
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0answers
131 views
Does Trump claim that election irregularities only affected the Presidential election?
Donald Trump has been contesting the results of the 2020 Presidential election, alleging voter fraud, improper counting, and other irregularities. A number of recounts have been done, although none ...
61
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2answers
9k views
Have any other US presidents used that tiny table?
I think by now, everyone has seen the pictures of Trump sitting at a tiny table bearing the presidential seal:
I am tempted to ask many things, like who thought that would be a good idea. But my ...
asked Nov 28 '20 at 10:13
Mawg says reinstate Monica
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4
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1answer
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Is there a (fuller) transcript for Trump's recent quip about election officials being “communists” and “enemies of the state”?
AP recently reported that:
Speaking to news crews gathered to watch the traditional holiday conversation with the military, Trump denounced officials in battleground states he’d lost as “communists” ...
0
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1answer
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What happens when a USA congress/senate candidate concedes while the vote count is still going? I mean can they still win? [duplicate]
I just have general question about concedings:
Let's say in scenario a democratic congressman/senator concedes while a large percent of the votes are still being counted. The large batch of uncounted ...
9
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2answers
524 views
How might Trump still win the electoral college?
For a couple of weeks now, the betting market site PredictIt has pretty consistently shown Trump as having a low-double-digit chance of winning the election. However, I was under the impression that:
...
3
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1answer
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Comparison of Presidential and House results by District
I've read a number of articles that have talked about the difference between down ticket results during the 2020 elections and the Presidential race.
But I've been unable to find raw data because the ...
3
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2answers
449 views
Has Trump ever explained how he won the allegedly rigged 2016 elections?
As Trump keeps alleging fraud in the 2020 elections, I'm wondering if he has ever explained how he won the 2016 elections in spite of alleged fraud. He said then too that the elections were rigged, ...
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4answers
240 views
Does the Constitution/Bill of Rights allow for temporary restrictions in case of emergencies?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-court/u-s-supreme-court-backs-religious-groups-over-new-york-virus-curbs-idUSKBN2860CK
NY State sought to limit in person worship to 25 in ...
asked Nov 26 '20 at 18:09
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
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22
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1answer
4k views
Why were there only 531 electoral votes in the US Presidential Election 2016?
I just read this Wikipedia article.
It says Trump won with a 304 to 227 for electoral votes.
That's 304 + 227 = 531 votes.
But the total number should be 538. Where did the 7 votes go?
3
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1answer
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Does liberalism support the idea of small government or it's just an interpretation of it?
In Latin America, liberalism is associated with the idea of free market, small government and less taxes. On the other side, I continuosly see in United States democratic party politicians being ...
4
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3answers
963 views
Choosing US House delegation by winner-take-all statewide vote?
I was thinking about a method to choose House delegations. The party with the most votes gets its slate/list of candidates put in. These candidates are voted on in a districtwide primary popular vote. ...
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How does the UK manage to transition leadership so quickly compared to the USA?
I appreciate that the USA has a larger population and more layers to it system of governance, but I don't understand how the UK can transition between governments practically overnight and the USA ...
1
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1answer
340 views
What were the 2020 Presidential Results in TX-15 specifically?
I am interested in the 2020 presidential election by congressional district. I am particularly interested in the 15th district of Texas. This is a South Texas district where the Democrat won by 3 ...
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1answer
264 views
Would the Biden administration have control over the size of the inauguration parade?
A typical Presidential inauguration ceremony looks somewhat like this:
Obviously having tens of thousands of people in close quarters during a pandemic is not the best idea, but who will get to call ...
4
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1answer
334 views
(How) did Trump's administration rebut the accusation that lowering drug prices via regulations is tantamount to socialism?
In an amusing perhaps reversal of the usual rhetoric from ads in the 2020 elections, Trump found himself being accused of advancing some kind of socialism, at least if AP's summary of the rhetoric ...
7
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1answer
556 views
What countries are on the United States' “most favored nations” list?
A recent executive order says that Medicare will pay the lowest price paid among a group of other economically advanced countries. These countries are called "the most favored nations".
What ...
