Is it time to scrap the Electoral College?

pMSNBC/MSN ^ | 10/21/08 | Tom Curry

[CatOwner]

I am not a fan of the popular vote idea, but I have to admit that barely winning a state and getting all its Electoral Votes does seem disporportionate.

[frogjerk]

I am not a fan of the popular vote idea, but I have to admit that barely winning a state and getting all its Electoral Votes does seem disporportionate.

The title of the office is "President of the United States" not President of the American People.

[adorno]

Is it time to scrap the Electoral College?

If the country was to do that, then it would be something that has to be decided on by the people, and then, the electoral college count would need to be used for that "referendum"; and the decision to scrap the college count would need to be, not just a majority decision, but a super-majority in the range of 66% to 75%.

Another possibility would be for the electoral college to be replaced by a larger college count. In that case, we should go to a county by county count in order to decide who gets the presidency. Thus, in order to win a county, a candidate would be expected to campaign in that county and anyone who doesn't would have to be disqualified from getting that county's "electoral" vote. That would make it very difficult for any one candidate to take a whole state or region for granted. Campaigns would be more expensive, but, hey, at least they would be fairer. There are many counties that might be "red" going into the "blue" count simply because they are part of the bigger "blue" state.

[omega4412]

How to better engineer the system

Wouldn't sound engineering require a system that isolates and limits the effects of local vote fraud? Like the electoral college?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Of course the liberals want to scrap it. They control the heavily ‘Rat areas and know that with a minimum of effort and money, can dominate presidential races.

Here is a better idea. Get rid of the current Senate and divide the country into 100 geographic regions of roughly equal size which must not be shaped like a banjo (this keeps ‘Rats from dividing up Los Angeles to dictate to residents of the Mojave who their senator shall be), each region must have at least 100,000 people in it. Then the people of that region vote for their senator.

I’ll trade the EC for the Senate because the Republcans will control the Senate absolutely and the ‘Rats will have the WH only ocassionally.

[frogjerk]

The title of the office is “President of the United States” not “President of the American People.”

[TADSLOS]

The title of the office is "President of the United States" not President of the American People.

Well said.

[Turret Gunner A20]

The usual cemocrap cry for mob rule.

[swain_forkbeard]

Okay. Then I get to tell them who received the most votes nationally.

[CatOwner]

I understand, and given the choice, I would choose the current Electoral system over a popular vote 100 times out of 100.

I keep thinking about blending the Electoral system with the primary system. Winner of a state gets two Electoral votes, and the remainder of that state's Electoral votes would be prorated over the popular count. The only problem with this idea is that a scenario like 1992 (Perot) or 1968 (Wallace) would likely result in an Electoral College nightmare.

[MainFrame65]

Typical of the MIT of today - proposing a “solution” for a non-existent problem.

DMS ‘62

[ctdonath2]

Indeed - and time for “groan, here we go again, NO don’t scrap it, anyone who wants to either doesn’t understand it or has ulterior motives” followed by the usual long explanation of how it works and why it’s good, which should have been explained in grade school.

[TommyDale]

That was then, this is now. We are hopelessly even in popular votes, but the highest population states would control the election.

[philman_36]

The system is a relic of the early days of the republic...
I'm amazed to see our proper form of government (a republic) used in an article about the means to end the republic, which is what scrapping the EC would do.

[KansasGirl]

I think the electorate is almost to the point that it will be dumb enough to go along with this idea.

[jabchae]

Gosh, I remember, back in the day when I went to MIT, how it was a serious school.

When was that? I was there through the 80s, and there were sane students enough, but the campus atmosphere was definitely way left.

[kabar]

First you have to scrap the Constitution and federalism.

[kabar]

Though it might be a salutory reform to force all states to go onto the Maine/Nebraska system

My nomination for the dumbest comment on this thread.

[MeanWestTexan]

I was there in the 80’s, as well, albeit in Hillel housing. Perhaps that insulated me.

[kabar]

but I have to admit that barely winning a state and getting all its Electoral Votes does seem disporportionate.

The states decide how their electoral votes will be allocated and distributed. Maine and Nebraska have a different system. Does it seem disproportionate that RI and CA have the same number of senators.