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If Only They Could All Vote

The outcome of the presidential race -- as well as the resolution of the economic crisis -- will have major implications around the world. So the Economist magazine has decided to poll the world, country-by-country, to try to get a sense of where the globe stands on the US presidential contest.

Using a nifty new online tool that goes so far as to redraw the electoral map, all 195 of the world's countries (including the US) are given a say in the election's outcome. As in America, each country has been allocated a minimum of three electoral-college votes with extra votes provided in proportion to population size. With over 6.5 billion people enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes.

The results to date are somewhat astonishing – Obama is leading McCain by a landslide of 8,192 electoral votes to 3! The only country in the world voting for McCain is Andorra! If only Economist readers ruled the world! Seriously though, it is interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama. Check out the map and cast your vote. Voting in the Global Electoral College closes at midnight on November 1st.

Peter Rothberg

October 1, 2008

The outcome of the presidential race — as well as the resolution of the economic crisis — will have major implications around the world. So the Economist magazine has decided to poll the world, country-by-country, to try to get a sense of where the globe stands on the US presidential contest.

Using a nifty new online tool that goes so far as to redraw the electoral map, all 195 of the world’s countries (including the US) are given a say in the election’s outcome. As in America, each country has been allocated a minimum of three electoral-college votes with extra votes provided in proportion to population size. With over 6.5 billion people enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes.

The results to date are somewhat astonishing – Obama is leading McCain by a landslide of 8,192 electoral votes to 3! The only country in the world voting for McCain is Andorra! If only Economist readers ruled the world! Seriously though, it is interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama. Check out the map and cast your vote. Voting in the Global Electoral College closes at midnight on November 1st.

Peter RothbergTwitterPeter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.


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