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The Electoral College should have been replaced with a direct popular vote years ago. Why?
1. It doesn't function the way the framers intended. They originally intended that electors would vote for the person they thought would be the best President. Electors actually vote for the person who has more votes than any other candidate in their state.
2. The same issues do not exist today that existed in 1789. Communications were difficult. There was no telegraph or television to transmit vote returns. It made sense to leave the decision of presidential selection in the hands of a body that was designed to meet in the capitol and resolve the issue. Those same communication issues do not exist today.
3. The Electoral College is skewed in favor of small population states. Someone from Cheyenne, Wyoming has about eight times the vote that someone from Los Angeles, California has. This is wrong. All votes should be equal in a country that prides itself on elections and representative democracy.
4. The Electoral College discourages candidates from campaigning in most states. Most campaigns focus on Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina because these are "swing states" with large numbers of electoral votes. Candidates do not campaign at all in most small states. If the EC were abolished, politicians would have more of an incentive to campaign in all states and pick up as many votes there as they could.
5. Because the poor and minorities are concentrated in large cities in populous states, the EC indirectly keeps these groups from having the same voice in our government that other voters have.
We may never get a constitutional amendment abolishing the EC simply because people never willing give up political power even when the current system is not just. I support proposals to create NPV or National Popular Vote. This could be done by a compact of states representing 270 or more of the 538 electoral votes.
Last edited by markg91359; 08-07-2017 at 08:22 PM..
A lot of voting rules were created in times of poor communication. The electoral college and congress are 2 examples of compensating for the difficulty of finding out what people want.
With modern lightning-fast communication, we could completely change the way we make laws. Imagine voting daily, or being able to suggest changes and present your arguments to the nation for consideration.
But just getting rid of the electoral college would be a good start.
With modern lightning-fast communication, we could completely change the way we make laws. Imagine voting daily, or being able to suggest changes and present your arguments to the nation for consideration.
That would be hell. It nearly is now with just opinions bouncing around that fast.
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."-- Mark Twain
THAT'S NOT THE WAY WE ELECT PRESIDENTS!!!! What about that DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? There was no MISTAKE in the 2000 or 2016 elections. They happened EXACTLY as they were supposed to. Nobody called Hillary Clinton the day before the election and SURPRISED her with the fact that the national popular vote didn't matter. She KNEW the rules going in.
Liberals seem to think that democracy is the system of government in which THEY win every time. Anything else is a "broken system". It's a disgusting trait among you people.
Not at all. Even as a MIDDLE OF THE ROAD Democrat, I believe that every once in a while the parties that control the House and or the Senate and or the Presidency should change hands for the good of the nation. That prevents things from swinging too far left or too far right.
We're all big boys and girls here...well almost all of us. We know what the current rules are. The topic of the discussion is how do we change the rules. Read the thread title. What has always been doesn't have to be what always is. Even the floundering fathers knew that...they attempted to form a more perfect union; they knew it would not be perfect.
We may never get a constitutional amendment abolishing the EC simply because people never willing give up political power even when the current system is not just. I support proposals to create NPV or National Popular Vote. This could be done by a compact of states representing 270 or more of the 538 electoral votes.
That would lead to vote fraud on a massive scale. And try explaining to someone in a state that voted for Candidate A that, because the rest of the country voted for Candidate B, his state's electoral votes would also go to Candidate B.
That would lead to vote fraud on a massive scale. And try explaining to someone in a state that voted for Candidate A that, because the rest of the country voted for Candidate B, his state's electoral votes would also go to Candidate B.
You don't explain why it would be worse of a voting fraud problem than it currently is.
The explanation you seek is a simple one. The people in each state commit to have their votes cast for the candidate that receives the most popular votes. Its how every election--except for the presidential election--determines results.
You don't explain why it would be worse of a voting fraud problem than it currently is.
There is no current voting fraud problem.
Quote:
The explanation you seek is a simple one. The people in each state commit to have their votes cast for the candidate that receives the most popular votes. Its how every election--except for the presidential election--determines results.
LOL, that's exactly the opposite of the "solution" proposed by mpunk in post #6 and repeated a couple of times since.
And I'll answer you in the same way I answered before: That's up to each state to determine for itself.
We may never get a constitutional amendment abolishing the EC simply because people never willing give up political power even when the current system is not just. I support proposals to create NPV or National Popular Vote. This could be done by a compact of states representing 270 or more of the 538 electoral votes.
There is such an initiative that has been floating around since about 2000:
"The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their respective electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who wins the most popular votes is elected president, and it will come into effect only when it will guarantee that outcome.
As of July 2017, it has been adopted by ten states and the District of Columbia. Together, they have 165 electoral votes, which is 30.7% of the total Electoral College and 61.1% of the votes needed to give the compact legal force."
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