The only way we should change the system, if at all, is to have an ever MORE federalist electoral college:
Instead of winner-take-all states, how about the following:
A victory in a single congressional district = 1 EV.
A victory statewide = 2 EV.
This would open up areas within states to political competition. For example, in California there is a large number of conservatives, but the state they're slightly outmnumbered by libs. Same goes for upstate NY, southern illinois, North Florida, Western Pennsylvania, and many other places.
I've heard a lot of conservatives propose this idea, and the common counterargument is a growth in gerrymandering. My response: so what!
If congressional district lines were more important, wouldn't that make who controls the state legislature more important? And if that were the case, wouldn't that in effect devolve power away from the Federal Government and back to the states???
It would bring us back closer to the days when control of the state legislature was more important than federal seats! That was before the 17th Amendment, when senators were appointed by the legislatures.
If this happened in the last election, Bush would have won by by more votes.
30 states voted for Bush, which would give him 60 EV from state-wide races (senatorial representation). Al Gore would have gotten 40 EV. If everybody voted according to their congressional district, Bush would have 228 EV from the Congressional EVs.
That's 288 EV for Bush, 250 EV for Gore. If democrats wanted to increase their electoral prospects, they would have to strengthen their appeal at the LOCAL level. No longer can a presidential candidate put a slick gloss on a campaign, bite their lip, promise to "feel their pain", and ride on positive media coverage. Support would have to be built from the ground up. The executive branch would be weak, like the constitution intended. States would have more power as well.
Thoughts???
My thoughts? Open this area of the Constitution up for actual change, and it'll be a disaster. I don't want to have any sort of bipartisan discussion about the EC issue until the Democrats lose this next election by a wide margin and realize they have to clean house. In fact, I will resist discussion of changes to the EC even if Democrats have won with it. The EC is one of our Founding Fathers' most brilliant ideas, and I am wary of anyone who wants to tinker with it.
In a way, such a method would make the Presidental race overly populist.
Whereas candidates now focus on a handful of "battleground" states and said states issues in play;
EV by cong dist would mean that each cong dist is worth the same so populist themes would go farther - esp. in urban districts that have only 40,000 voters
that's my $0.02