The Electoral College

These days, it’s common to hear academia, the media and liberal politicians talk about getting rid of our electoral college. They say it’s outdated and confusing and “robs people of their individual vote”.
Just one of several reasons for the electoral college is that it provides representation for a minority group of people – the 20% of Americans who live in the rural areas (which makes up 97% of the total landmass here in the United States)
Our Founding Fathers were pretty smart, and the more that time passes, the more it becomes very evident they knew what they were doing.

[be]

Maybe it used to be, but gerrymandering has really screwed things up.

[Certifiedrailfan]

Maybe it was once, but it's screwed up now! To let a few states decide the fate of the rest of the country is stupid and so wrong!

[kilroy]

What a load of nonsense. The Electoral College was not created to protect people living in rural areas, it was created because 1) the original 13 states were vastly different in both size and economy, and 2) at that time it was not clear whether the USA would be a loose confederation of 13 nation-states that acted cooperatively, or a single country with a strong Federal government. That question was settled in the aftermath of the Civil War, and we now have a strong Federal government. The Founders also created the Senate, where all states have the same number of reps regardless of size, to ensure smaller states don't get trampled by larger ones. As for candidates visiting.... seriously? You really think them visiting you has anything to do with they're going to do once elected? The only purpose the Electoral College serves today is to give people who choose to live in low density states more voting power than those that don't. A person living in Wyoming gets 2.97 votes vs. someone in Florida that gets 0.78 votes. (yes, it's correct, do the math) Doesn't sound very democratic to me. The Electoral College needs to be abolished so that every American gets an equal vote. What I'd like to see is the College gone, and then primary elections held by the states in order of their population, with the ten smallest (by pop) states going together in Week 1, the next ten in Week 2, etc. That would still give the smaller states additional influence by acting as bellwethers early in the process.

[JBBF]

Funny how the rest of the industrialized countries do fine without it, and USA was small when it went into effect. Better rethink.

[johnclifford]

The Electoral College must go. We already have disproportionate representation of rural areas by way of the Senate. Every state, whether it's WY (pop. 576, 000) or CA (~40 million), gets the same representation in the Senate. That is how the Founding Fathers accommodated the small state to large state, and now the rural to urban, asymmetry.

[patrickfreeman]

Fun Fact: The Electoral College has never had a championship team in the NCAA

[Looneybob]

That's NOT a good reason to keep the electoral college. The reasons for having it in the beginning don't exist anymore. One person, one vote. If a candidate wants to win, they MUST convince ALL voters. There are literally NO strictly red or blue areas and anyone who thinks that is living in a fantasy. Make it a holiday so everyone can vote, and everyone will KNOW their vote counts. The people deserve to have their individual vote counted instead of just a few saying well, I like this candidate, even tho most of the people I represent like the other. That has happened too many times and it's not right.

[paulpeterson]

With the Electoral College, all presidential candidates ignore all to voters in more than 40 states. If voters being ignored is bad, then the Electoral College is the worst. If rural voters votes counted, then candidates would have to court them, but they don't because they are largely in states that are either dominated by large cities (example: Illinois) or in states that are dominated by rural areas (example: Kansas, that keeps its largest city mostly in Missouri). The EC apologists just manufacture arguments to support a system that benefits the same political party that they support, period.

The EC was created because a bunch of people wanted to count (insert n-word here) as 3/5ths of a person so that Slave States would gain power from populations that were not allowed to vote at all. If you want to talk about voters being ignored, that was one of the main goals of the Electoral College.

[joeljeffcoat]

The issue is that the electoral college is used to defy the the results of the popular vote, and it’s not the will of the rural voters that prevails, but rather that of politicians who really don’t have their best interests in mind.

[sharylhobbs]

Sorry, but I don’t believe that states who have smaller populations than our bigger cities should be allowed to cast the vote winner aside and decide who should be president. Popular vote should win the election. Period.

[dperreno]

What you say is true, but the current system doesn't represent the rural voters either since the rural states are still being ignored by the candidates as they are assumed to be "in the bag" for the republicans. If EVERY vote counted the same, then even the rural voters would matter since most elections are well within a 20% margin (usually within 5-10%!)

[ianwheeler]

Wouldn't PR work just as well, also a good policy is a good policy for all don't you think.

[johnlaudenslager]

I'm for doing without the electoral college, because simpler one-person-one-vote is the most democratic. If you think such democracy makes for tyranny of the majority, the electoral college tends to make for tyranny of the minority. I also think that national candidates visiting rural areas or any areas is more theater than research. National candidates these days can get as real a feel for what people want done by watching local news stations. Democracy in any form has always required significant willingness of minorities to concede to the majority.

[LisaMitchell-fe]

So outdated and undemocratic so is the bs gerrymandering.

[andrelavictoire]

Only country in the world where one person on vote does count. Bravo.

[christhebrickman]

I think that your reasoning is flawed.
It may have had a time in history that it was useful, but not anymore.
It should be abolished.
NOW...

[davidbaldwin]

I grew up on a Dairy Farm; I gave this same explanation to my wife yesterday.

[patrickfreeman]

People only talk about abolishing the electoral college when their candidate didn't win. If their candidate did win then they love the electoral college. Even if they were the same ones screaming the loudest to abolish the electoral college the previous election

[brianhickey]

The absolute best system of government and elections for that government the world has seen. It is a shame that our bureaucrats have seen fit to take money and power into the system and warp it out of all control. The founders planned for this with the Electoral College. Your education is perfect :) The popular vote is a number and nothing else. Representation is key for our nation to have the freedoms that God grants us and that the US Constitution guarantees. Politicians tend to talk about Democracy but they forget this form of government is not a Democracy. We are a Constitutional Republic :)