Actually it is the winner take all system of allocating electors, rather than the electoral college itself that is responsible for some of the criticisms in this article. The Constitution certainly does NOT require that states allocate all of their EV’s to a single candidate. In fact, in this very election, Trump won 1 of Maine’s 4 EV’s, with Clinton taking the other 3. The Constitution explicitly grants the legislature of each state the power to determine how that state’s EV’s are awarded. The fact that most states use the winner take all system is a result of these decisions by the state legislatures, not a feature of the electoral college, per se.
Theoretically, a state could award its EV’s by congressional district (like ME and NE do currently), by proportion of the vote (ie, in a state like PA with 20 EV’s, a candidate gaining 60% of the vote would get 12 of the EV’s), by legislative action ignoring the popular vote altogether (albeit unlikely), or by some other system that I cannot imagine. Most of what this article discusses are consequences of the fact that 48 of the 50 states, and 530 of the 538 EV’s are allocated on a winner take all basis, not consequences of the Electoral College.
We haven’t had even 65% eligible voter turnout since 1908. This election’s turnout is supposedly less than the last two elections, which I didn’t see coming given a Trump win. I thought it was going to be a really big swell, maybe 70% or something record breaking. I guess it didn’t happen, which isn’t a good sign, in my opinion.
In any case, why should anyone care about the electoral college system not working right when 40+% of the eligible voters don’t care enough to vote? I mean come on.
Freegards
No sane person would want a national vote recount in a close election. That would be a nightmare that would take months to decide.
So if the Left really hates the Electoral College, I have an alternate idea:
One county, one vote. Like it?
Yes, it’s the best system for this country.. otherwise, all the power would be centered on a few mega-cities. The Americans who truly make this country work would be screwed.
On second though, perhaps apportion electoral votes by county. Heh-heh-heh...
and it begins.. just like 2000..
It was put in place to insure we were a Representative Republic instead of a Democracy. They knew that Democracy is two foxes and a chicken discussing what was for dinner and yet we still have some on FR that want to undo it because there has been a time or two when it would have worked in our favor to be a “Democracy”.