Posted on 09/05/2024 8:57:33 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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I think it’s a comprehensive and compelling article explaining the arguments for an electoral college.
THX for posting.
I guess lawyers don't do fractions. What a dumbass.
The democrats should try their popular vote theory in a democrat Presidential primary, before they dream of a Constitutional change that isn’t happening.
They can hold 50+ primaries in states & territories and add up the votes at the end.
The electoral college is one of the constitution’s safeguards against tyranny, so it’s no surprise the Democrats are against it.
The real reason for the EC is well-understood and it’s fairness is clear if we use an analogy. (BTW I’m dating myself with this; I’m sure there are more recent examples):
We all agree; the object of baseball is to score more runs than your opponent. In 1960, the New York Yankees outscored the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series and hence became World Champions that year. Wait a minute; the Pirates actually win the World Series that year, but how can that be? The Yankees scored more runs! Our method for determining a champion is obviously unfair (and probably a relic of slavery).
Of course almost everyone understands the reason the Pirates won despite being outscored, and nobody doubts the fairness. The Yankees won a couple games by large margins while the Pirates won games by close margins, but the Pirates won more games. The EC is similar; it prevents a candidate from appealing to a large fraction of the electorate in a small number of states. A winning candidate must appeal to a less localized electorate.
Thank you for this post.
p
It was placed in effect to protect the interests of all the original 13 colonies, BIG and small. Founders feared densely populated states like NY, MASS, etc. MD would not run rough shod over the rest with their wants. A UNION of states, not 3-4 ruling domains over other serf states. Black has nothing to do with it.
infamous two-thirds clause that protected slavery.
Er, um, no...but thanks for playing.
Mathematical proof of the merits of the Electoral College:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/from-the-archive-math-against-tyranny
Democrats only rip the electoral college when they lose the white house. I don’t recall them complaining much when Biden won in 2020, but since Biden supposedly got 80 million votes, perhaps they did.
The electoral college is meant to keep big states from trampling on small states, but even more important is that we don’t have democratic mob rule.
Mob rule is exactly what democrats think they want.
They are not the party of “choice”. They hate choice.
They’d like to force EVERYONE to drive EVs. They’d like to force everyone to pay higher taxes. They’d like to force everyone’s kids to go to public schools. They’d like an open border to most of the world (except parts of europe) and they’d like to force everyone to pay for their healthcare, education, and income.
What do you suppose democrats would do if the majority of americans voted in a pure democracy to make marijuana illegal in all 50 states?
What if a simple majority of americans voted to make abortion illegal?
What if a simple majority of americans passed a law abolishing the paying for of public schools with property taxes?
I bet they would change their minds very fast.
You know what’s a relic of slavery?
The dem party.
CC
“In a national election, in a country as large and diverse as ours, representation based on geographic segments of the population is far superior to the mob rule of a purely popular vote.”
Agreed. And, that is why we need a reinterpretation of the electoral college, not its removal.
Granting that geographic segments is important, I have been a proponent of the following model:
There are 538 Electoral Votes; one for each Congressional Representative and Senator (435 + 100), and three for the District of Columbia.
Clearly, we know the geographic boundaries of the Congressional districts across the Nation.
SO:
Each Congressional District gets ONE EV, cast for the winner of the popular vote IN THAT DISTRICT.
Each State has TWO EV, cast for the winner of the popular vote IN THAT STATE.
DC can cast their THREE EV for the winner of the popular vote in DC.
Part of the issue, today, is the differences between the States in the manner in which they cast EV; some are winner take all, some are not.
The plan outined, above, rids us of those differences and lets EVERY VOTE count.
Amen.
The rise of the American City States acting as coalition has skewed the system. When corrupt cities control the count of votes cast, there is no actual election.
The cities have adequate votes, both real and fraudulent, to control the states and the electoral votes.
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