Should the United States scrap the electoral college?

[Springfield]

It’s been making the ranks lately, so why not discuss it here on ES?

 

 

 

 

I have my own opinion but I’ll wait until the ball is rolling until I chime in.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Springfield

[TheGoodBits]

Electoral college is a remnant from our original system...when people didn’t elect the president. It serves no purpose in our current system, other than to occasionally distort the outcome of elections in an undemocratic way.

[Cooked Crack]

Add a poll. Burn the EC to the ground. Unless some Republicans start losing the EC but winning the popular vote we're going to have to hope the National Popular Vote Compact makes it to 270.

[twa]

No, but I would be fine with states choosing electors by proportional vote.

[Captain Wiggles]

Yes.

 

Only reason we have it at all is because of southern slave holders. The electoral college is antiquated and should be done away with.

 

One person, one vote, one value.

 

 

[spjunkies]

Should be gone, but republicans won't let it happen anytime soon. 

[Renegade7]

@SpringfieldThis needs a poll question to do this situation justice.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Renegade7

[c slag]

It's based on how many representatives a state has in Congress correct?

How do they count the votes for those of you whom live in the DC city limits?

[AsburySkinsFan]

Yes

It has shown to be so corrupted that it failed to prevent an unqualified, self interested, traitorous **** from assuming the Presidency therefore the voice of people should dictate. It is the ONLY office which is elected in this way it should fall in line.

[Springfield]

Poll posted.

[88Comrade2000]

yes

[BleedBNG]

There have been 4 times that the electoral college has won out the popular vote (with one time decided by the House of Representatives). All four winners were Republican. I would say that if you got rid of the EC, than the top 2 candidates of the Democratic party should run for Pres. Might as well scrap the Republican party from then on because California, New York and Texas will be electing future Presidents. Doesn't matter to me either way.

[PokerPacker]

Electoral college prevents rural areas from being completely ignored.  Bad idea to scrap it.

 

It would be nice to have states give out electoral votes by district plus two for the winner rather than everything being winner-take-all.

[Captain Wiggles]

5 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

Electoral college prevents rural areas from being completely ignored. 

 

 

The Electoral college and having two Senators per state actually favors rural areas as of now. Rural areas are completely overrepresented under our current system.

 

500k people live in Wyoming compared to 40 million in California. Yet they both have two Senators. 

 

As to the point the larger states Ca, Ny, Tx, ect would decide every election. Why is that unacceptable when Fla, NC, OH, WI, are the ones that generally get to decide presidential elections?

 

One person, one vote makes the most sense in a modern society. 

 

 

[DogofWar1]

Remnant of an outdated concept.  It was not designed with the possibility of such major density imbalances in mind.

 

The US is at a crossroads with the EC (and also with the Senate, but that's another debate); do we want to be a democratic system that ensures majority rule with minority rights/protections, or do we want to slip towards minority rule and authoritarianism.

 

The EC is leading to the latter.  It's broken.  A nation like ours will not long survive if the will of the people is continued to be subverted.

[Going Commando]

It's an undemocratic vestigial organ of slavery.  It absolutely should be abolished.  The EC was adopted along with the 3/5ths compromise to get slave states to ratify the constitution.  It was an undemocratic concession to give the South outsized influence on the presidency as they had very large populations in general but small populations of voters.  It still functions to give the South and now the Midwest and West outsized influence on the presidency, which is the reason why Republicans defend it even though it is nakedly undemocratic and an honest to God threat to our Democracy.  Four of the five presidents it has cursed us with against the popular vote have been among our very worst.

[Going Commando]

This is a good discussion of the history and design of the EC by three master historians on one of my favorite radio shows.  Everyone who opines on this topic should understand the origins and intent of the institution.

 

 

[Rocky21]

The Electoral College was supposedly put in place to prevent stupid people from electing an unqualified President so ..... I’d say it’s not working.

[Fergasun]

The President is the only person that everyone in the country votes for. Under the EC, not everyone's vote carries the same weight. This is wrong.

I will add that ranksd choice popular vote should be the preferred method of an alternate to the EC. This will ensure whomever is elected has a majorty of votes.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

If you are ok with letting States determine things like abortion rights, drug rights, gay marriage, gun rights, ect, then I say yes, abolish the electoral college.

 

The problem is that abolishing the electoral college gives larger states all the power, so, for instance, if 95 percent of a small state are against policy x but just 60 percent of people in the large state are for policy x, the leader in favor of policy x gets voted in and the small state gets disenfranchised... but if each state were able to make their own decisions maybe that wouldn’t be the case...

 

 

[AsburySkinsFan]

9 hours ago, twa said:

No, but I would be fine with states choosing electors by proportional vote.

Because twa and GOPers think 1 person 1 vote unless you live in Wyoming where it's really 1 person equals 3.5 votes. 

But those country folk don't want them city folk bossing them around, but they have no problem flipping the script.

[Springfield]

OK, so I'd rather not see an end to the electoral college.

 

If were a simple majority vote then I wouldn't mind, I just like idea of the strategy behind the electoral college.  It spreads the president's attention to more than just several large population centers.  It would definitely change the dynamics between the legislative and the executive though.  I think it would pit the two at odds of one another regardless of party.  A popular vote moves this nation closer to the "two countries" mindset that we are already plodding towards.

 

What I think needs to be fixed more than anything, is the gerrymandering.  They need to cut that **** out and the electoral college will probably work more favorably to the democrats.

[AsburySkinsFan]

2 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

If you are ok with letting States determine things like abortion rights, drug rights, gay marriage, gun rights, ect, then I say yes, abolish the electoral college.

 

The problem is that abolishing the electoral college gives larger states all the power, so, for instance, if 95 percent of a small state are against policy x but just 60 percent of people in the large state are for policy x, the leader in favor of policy x gets voted in and the small state gets disenfranchised... but if each state were able to make their own decisions maybe that wouldn’t be the case...

 

 

And the problem with the electoral college is that it gives disproportionate power to voters in low population states.

 

Those are not democratic principles. 

 

Isn't it interesting that EVERY OTHER elected office in our country is elected by simple majority EXCEPT the President. End it.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

2 minutes ago, AsburySkinsFan said:

And the problem with the electoral college is that it gives disproportionate power to voters in low population states.

 

Those are not democratic principles. 

 

Isn't it interesting that EVERY OTHER elected office in our country is elected by simple majority EXCEPT the President. End it.

 

 

I agree with you, but if you are going to rule from afar the minority view needs more protection. If you wanted to limit the federal governments power to force states to adopt federal laws then I would be all for it.

Edited March 24, 2019 by CousinsCowgirl84

[AsburySkinsFan]

Just now, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

 

 

I agree with you, but if you are going to rule from afar the minority view needs more protection.

As it is now Wyoming is ruling from afar. I think it's funny that the Conservatives on THIS issue are suddenly concerned with the minority voice....because it's theirs.