Sir, – Your focus on Georgia, one of the handful of swing states in this year’s US presidential election 2024 (Steven Carroll, World, October 23rd), made me think of two unusual features of the American political system.
First, that a tiny numbers of voters – the equivalent of barely hundreds of people in the Irish population – will decide one of the most important elections of our time. Second, that these voters are very poorly served by this same system.
If this kind of election happened in Ireland, all those swing voters would be looking at housing subsidies, personal phone pouches and a bike shed on every corner.
Instead they just get a few rallies every four years, belying their status as the decision makers of the free world. A strange system indeed! – Yours, etc,
JOHN COTTER,
Ferrybank,
Waterford.