Nicely said, Nerd. I *think* that the process of voting for the President is actually voting for the delegates to the Electoral College, which are determined by the parties ahead of time, not afterward.

By and large, the EC works most of the time since we have a de facto 2-party system -- but the 2000 election is an example of how the system can outweigh the actual democracy part. What was the other election that happened with... Cleveland?