Why Does the Electoral College Still Exist? | NowThis

Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by nearly 3 million votes in 2016, yet Trump became president thanks to the Electoral College. So why does this ‘janky system’ exist and will it go away any time soon?

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[kateuhler]

This is so frustrating. It makes me feel a lot less confident and happy about voting, since, ultimately, my vote doesn't count. 😑😞😔. Feels unamerican, unconstitutional, and not at all a true democracy.

[tylerhackner]

The EC is old and antiquated and needs to be replaced

[jaynorris]

It's time to get rid of it full stop. Each and every vote should be counted. The presidential election is too important for this none sense.

[Alcides]

That needs to be revisited and if necessary eliminated or at least to be in synch with the popular vote. They cannot go against the popular votes.

[MeBeCreepy]

“Winner takes all”
Oh yeah, Hasan Minhaj covered this too

[lucasmarcello]

Why does he not mention that we elected representatives to vote on our behalf in congress?

[teacherella]

The EC is totally obsolete and should be abolished. In other democratic countries the leader of a nation is elected through popular vote - and those countries also have rural regions like the US. I would want my vote to matter, the EC has no need of it though.

[rogerforsberg]

In Minnesota during the 1962-63 school year (yes -- more than 56 years ago!) the debate topic in public high schools was RESOLVED: the results of the Electoral College's vote for president should be replaced by the results of the national vote for president.

I was a member of the debate team and we were 14-0 when we took the AGAINST position and 5-3 when we were debating the FOR position (our team ended up 3d in the state debate meet). So, this debate may not be as "old as the hills", but the attempts of those who want to change the current constitutional rules have been futile.

[murdanbaut]

"It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes

[blkhemi]

Not every state wants to be like California and New York. We vote based on the values and traditions from where ever state we're from. This is why the U.S. needs the electoral college. Without it, the state's with the largest population would decide every election, and no one else would ever have a voice.

[Batman-jcuc]

The founders wanted the US President to best represent the country as a whole. Without the Electoral College, candidates could run for president in NYC and LA and ignore the rest of the states because they are not as populated.

[dagsouleyedblue]

This is one of the most important issues at the heart of what's wrong/maintaining the US 'democratic' facade. You want real change? Change this system.

[GetRidOfCivilAssetForfeiture]

It was also instituted for the same reason we have the House of Senators, to give smaller and less populated states a voice that can be heard. When there were only 13 states, each state could easily matter. Now, it’s not so much the case. The Right says it’s to keep larger and more populous states from running roughshod over the other states but now we have a small minority, in the form of battleground/swing states dictating national policy. Seriously, when was the last time a candidate of either party campaigned in Wyoming or Maine or Rhode Island or Delaware? Those are smaller or less populated states but they have no effect on the election outcome.

This time around, Texas was in play. This is due to many from California and other high cost of living states moving to Texas but also moving their left of center political ideology with them. All of the sudden, Texas stopped bragging about how they were taking people from California (you also will see similar complaints from the Right living in Florida and North Carolina, to mention a couple of more states).

A better system, one in which smaller and less populated states get a role still but not outsized is to divide the electoral votes based upon percentages won in that state. No winner take all. I would also do a round up if a candidate gets an x.5 or greater of a vote, and rounding down if it is less than x.5 of a vote. Not perfect but by far better than what we have.

[noteasilyentertained]

I noticed how the fact that slavery was a factor in it's creation was left out.

[iwnunn]

Because of the ec, we allowed complete incompetence to enter the white house in 2016

[semik]

Because without it the people can actually vote who they want in as oppose to what the establishment wants.

[Satchmojones]

The electoral college exists for one reason...to give you the illuision of choice.

[Flounderboy]

All in favor for a popular vote to abolish the Electoral College?

[zknowledge]

It doesn't need to be removed, it needs to be altered where the percentage of popular vote gets the same percentage of electoral college vote for that state.

[comediccheeks]

Electoral Votes based on 100k people and the voting system must be Proportional