Sheer luck...or something else?

[s_stabeler]

It's also worth noting that the fairness of the Presidential Election is actually irrelevant. There is no federal law that says that Presidential Electors need to be elected by a fair ballot- indeed, legally, the electors are appointed by the state legislatures, state laws govern how they are appointed. It's ALSO worth noting , admittedly, that no state has actually tried to do anything except an (officially) fair ballot for the presidential Election since 1824(which was the first election where all states used a popular ballot) so the Supreme Court may well rule otherwise if it ever came up.

My point, basically, is that it's actually irrelevant if the coins were fixed in some regard. Not only is it realistically not going to affect the nomination- and personally, I'd be inclined to go for a 50-50 split in the nominators elected from a caucus that is a deal heat, but apparently nobody thought of that- but the nomination doesn't legally have to be done by a fair election in the first place.

[TheHuckster]

Regardless of how a state chooses a nominee, don't you still want a clean and clear method just for the sake of having some sense that whoever is representing their party to run for president won their nomination fairly and democratically, just to avoid contempt and ridicule over the nomination? Even if there's no federal law or constitutional obligation to uphold such a principle, the popular opinion would be quite negative if it appeared as though an election was unfair or even fixed, even if there was no legal ramifications for it.

[s_stabeler]

oh, I don't disagree with you- it's just that this has even less effect on the actual election than making sure party names aren't too similar. (I am not joking. In one case, in the UK, someone registered to be to the ballot as a representative of the literal democrat party- as in, their party affiliation was "Literal Democrat Party" and they confused enough voters that the Liberal Democrat candidate lost the election.)

In short- should we REALLY be concentrating on a few coin flips that probably weren't rigged, or should we be concentrating on the actual candidates- and their policies should they win the White House.