In a perfect democracy, at least 50% of people would support every decision.

The U.S. falls short of this goal.

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Spoken For.
House vote: H.R. 5036 // April 15, 2008Needed two-thirds to pass

Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008

Sponsor: RUSH HOLT (D-NJ)

Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008 - Directs the Election Assistance Commission to reimburse certain jurisdictions for the costs of: (1) converting from electronic or other voting systems to paper ballot voting systems for the general elections for federal office to be held in November 2008; (2) retrofitting direct recording electronic voting systems to produce voter verifiable paper records; and (3) providing backup paper ballots if the jurisdiction uses a direct recording electronic voting system which happens to fail. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Commission to reimburse any state for the documented reasonable costs it incurs in conducting manual audits of the results of any of the regularly scheduled general elections for federal office in November 2008 (including, at state option, manual audits of state and local elections).

Government Operations and Politics Topic assigned by the Congressional Research Service.

Who won, and how much of the country was behind them

Won the vote · Nay

178 votes, representing 96,927,086 people42.2%of U.S. adults

Lost the vote · Yea

239 votes, representing 123,251,796 people53.7%of U.S. adults

The dotted gap is 4.1% of U.S. adults whose member did not vote, voted “present,” or whose seat was vacant.

Share of U.S. adults represented, the House. The winning side fell 7.8 points short of a majority of the country.
SideOutcomeVotesShare of U.S. adults
NayWon17842.2%
YeaLost23953.7%
Not represented on this questionNo position taken04.1%