Why the Electoral College Decides U.S Presidential Elections

The Electoral College still shapes U.S. presidential elections, and was born during the heated debates of 1787. Was it a smart compromise or a flawed strategy? The debate started centuries ago, and it’s still going strong today.#ElectoralCollege

[mjmclaugh]

So you're going to rely on that one quote to say that it was a rush decision? That is so not a good answer. What about the fact that the founding fathers didn't want urban areas to always out rule rural. If you take the largest six cities in America in a national popular vote that is 17.6 million people which is larger than the population of our 14 smallest states

[averagejoe]

Federal Voter Suppression at the State Electoral Level

America wants term limits, Voter ID (proof of citizenship), mandatory in-person voting, a two-person hand count of all ballots, abolishment of “winner-take-all” for electoral votes at the State level (they should be apportioned via ratio).

To my mind, there are 48 examples of voter suppression, at the State(s) level, in our Republic. By this, I mean that we currently have 48 State members of our Republic, which subscribe to the belief or rule, that the Electoral College system is "winner take all". The two (2) State exceptions being (shockingly) Nebraska and Maine. This means all of these other 48 State's Electoral Votes are automatically aligned with the popular vote in that State (i.e. State level mob rule).

As an example, if a given State has 10 electoral votes, and the election results are 40:60, then all 10 go to the candidate with the 60 percentile value, even though the results should be split by a ratio of 4:6 (to thereby allow for more equal and fair State level representation).

This “winner-take-all” methodology has resulted in presidential candidates zeroing in on only a handful of States for their campaigning. This is because most States strongly lean in one direction (e.g. in modern terms, Red or Blue). This makes campaigning in these heavily tilted States both unnecessary and from a financial perspective, an utter waste of campaign funds.

The obvious problem with this system, at the State level, is that you only require the majority vote to win (i.e. 51%, or mob rule). When this occurs, the major cities within each State, due to their huge populations, become defacto dictators of the suburbs and urban areas within each respective State (e.g. California and New York are two wonderful real-world examples of this corruption).

The two cities, Los Angeles (and its surrounding County) and New York City will always dominate via their population counts. These two cities alone will solely determine who gets the entirety of their State's respective Electoral College votes (the remaining citizens of these two (2) States will have zero say).

When you factor in all 48 States that utilize this Electoral Vote allocation method (i.e. winner-take-all), you begin to see the incredible imbalance in our current system.

The fact is, at the State level, the Electoral College system is corrupt. It's undemocratic and oppressive and flies in the face of our Constitutional Representative Republic. Even at the State level, mob rule should be strictly forbidden.

Lastly, thank God the Electoral College exists at the Federal level, and is written into our founding Constitution, for if it was not, then by population counts alone (i.e. again the infamous Mob Rule), Los Angeles and New York City would be the two areas within our nation that would determine who our President will be every four (4) years. None of the rest of the United States would have any say at all.



Electoral College
Distribution of Electoral Votes
Allocation among the States

Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of Senators and Representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its Senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.
Under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated three electors and treated like a State for purposes of the Electoral College.
Each State (which includes the District of Columbia for the Electoral College) decides how to appoint its electors; however, they must do so according to law enacted before Election Day. Currently all States use the popular vote results from the November general election to decide which political party chooses the individuals who are appointed. 
 
Allocation within each State
All States, except for Maine and Nebraska, have a winner-take-all policy where the State looks only at the overall winner of the state-wide popular vote.  Maine and Nebraska, however, appoint individual electors based on the winner of the popular vote within each Congressional district and then 2 "at-large" electors based on the winner of the overall state-wide popular vote. 
While it is rare for Maine or Nebraska to have a split vote, each has done so twice: Nebraska in 2008, Maine in 2016, and both Maine and Nebraska in 2020.
 
Current allocations
The allocations below are based on the 2020 Census. They are effective for the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.
Total Electoral Votes:  538;   Majority Needed to Elect:  270
Alabama - 9 votes Kentucky - 8 votes North Dakota - 3 votes
Alaska - 3 votes Louisiana - 8 votes Ohio - 17 votes
Arizona - 11 votes Maine - 4 votes Oklahoma - 7 votes
Arkansas - 6 votes Maryland - 10 votes Oregon - 8 votes
California - 54 votes Massachusetts - 11 votes Pennsylvania - 19 votes
Colorado - 10 votes Michigan - 15 votes Rhode Island - 4 votes
Connecticut - 7 votes Minnesota - 10 votes South Carolina - 9 votes
Delaware - 3 votes Mississippi - 6 votes South Dakota - 3 votes
District of Columbia - 3 votes Missouri - 10 votes Tennessee - 11 votes
Florida - 30 votes Montana - 4 votes Texas - 40 votes
Georgia - 16 votes Nebraska - 5 votes Utah - 6 votes
Hawaii - 4 votes Nevada - 6 votes Vermont - 3 votes
Idaho - 4 votes New Hampshire - 4 votes Virginia - 13 votes
Illinois - 19 votes New Jersey - 14 votes Washington - 12 votes
Indiana - 11 votes New Mexico - 5 votes West Virginia - 4 votes
Iowa - 6 votes New York - 28 votes Wisconsin - 10 votes
Kansas - 6 votes North Carolina - 16 votes Wyoming - 3 votes