Earther elections

Hi All, 

There was nothing quite like Earther elections.

 There are two types of Earthers. Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Humans)  and Homo Sapiens Cretaceous (the first nations of the planet earth,  called the Sszorg , who were almost wiped out 65 million years ago, but survived in hibernation chambers until being discovered in 1970).  Both are full citizens of the Earth Union.

The election for President was decided by an Electoral College, but those Electors were elected by every adult citizen in the Earth Union.  The College had as many votes as there were Members of the Earth Parliament; The upper House the Senate, had 4,950 members, 30 members for each state, so the tiny Caribbean Island of Saint George with 18,000 inhabitants had the same amount of Senators as vast China,  which has a population of 5.6 billion. The Lower house of Commons was  supposed to reflect each state by population and according to law, to have 5 times as many members as the Senate which meant that there were 24,750 members of that chamber. Thus there were 29,700 Electoral College votes and a winner needed 14,851 votes.  All of the votes were cast on the first past the post system, which means that there are two parties, giant coalitions,  of the left and right , called the Reds (i,e the left) and the Blues (i,e, Conservatives) . There are various 'swing states' which decide the winner.

There were 165 states in this Union- 139 within and above Earth ( the Halo collection of asteroids of the Artic and Antarctica and the other asteroids in geo stationary orbit around the major industrial centres of Earth) - and 26 other states, 3 of which were in the Solar System: Venus, Lunar and the Asteroid Belt, the other 23 around the galaxy, including  Northumbria, Mercia, Kolob , The Alpha Centuari Confederation and The United Planets of Orthodox Christianity (Which strangely included what was once called the USSR). There were also two dozen Earth states that also had extra solar elements which were considered integral to themselves, for example Canada had 3 Provinces in outer space in addition to those back on the continental North American Provinces of  Canada. 

Whilst swing states vary via decade, there are usually at least a dozen or so of them. These 'purple' states include France ( metropolitan France is leftist, but France also includes Algeria and Francophone Africa), Persia ( with its majority Zoroastrian population and large Jewish minority , Persia has a very independent polity), Israel (2 Jews, 10 opinions as the old joke goes), Sheba Kingdom, Aksum Empire, Mankinda  Empire ,Rhodesia, the North America USA (Canada is usually solidly left)  and the South American states of New Grenada, Rio De Plata and New Spain. South Africa is also becoming a 'purple state' , because of the influx of Homo Cretaceous, who generally as a people are solidly capitalist and socially  conservative in outlook and mentality (much to the disappointment of the left, who are endlessly looking for minority groups to become victims and therefore permanent voters for them).