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Eliminate the Electoral College

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  • #1

    Eliminate the Electoral College

    How do we go about getting rid of the Electoral College? This institution has clearly outlived its usefulness.

    I say this because the candidates only campaign in swing states. The rest of the country hardly even matters to them. Bush was going to come to Delaware, but then he was rescheduled or something. Kerry never even made the attempt as far as I know.

    We may be looking at another election where the winner of the popular vote will still lose.

    Any thoughts?
    "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
    —Orson Welles as Harry Lime
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  • #2
    Enlightened absolutism
    CSPA

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    • #3
      I think the EC has long outlived it's real purpose. This lose the state by one vote crap and get nothing for it is just stupid. It is also another way to keep third party candidates out of the way.
      Keep on Civin'
      RIP rah, Tony Bogey & Baron O

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      • #4
        But chances are it won't change except by a national amendment (fat chance) because states won't split votes for fear of losing power (ala Colorado) and end up in the same boat as states like Texas or California.

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        • #5
          Like it or not, the electoral college is part of the power compromise among states of different sizes. Personally, I don't want to reopen that set of issues.
          I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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          • #6
            Not going to happen, but it would be EXTREMELY interesting to see how things would play out if the US implemented proportional representation and parliamentiarism.
            CSPA

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            • #7
              Originally posted by DanS
              Personally, I don't want to reopen that set of issues.
              Why is that?
              "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
              —Orson Welles as Harry Lime

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              • #8
                Because then the US would be torn apart by CIVIL WAR!!11!!1
                Eventis is the only refuge of the spammer. Join us now.
                Long live teh paranoia smiley!

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                • #9
                  Removing the electoral college will reverse the campaign stops... small states will then be ignored, and the larger states getting more attention. In a way, it will increase the "cost of entry" to a candidate. Instead of being able to focus dollars in the cheaper swing states.. the big states would become more important, and are far more expensive to advertise in.

                  Hmmmmm... that would make for more profits for advertising agencies and PR firms... Hmmmmm....
                  Keep on Civin'
                  RIP rah, Tony Bogey & Baron O

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                  • #10
                    of course the rest of the country means something. But the fact is they are all democrat or republican, so no sense campaigning there.

                    But that doesn't mean the person elected is going to ignore the state's platform and desires. Except Bush with regards to Nevada. He ass ****ed us on the Yucca mountain thing. But you know what? I knew he would. I voted for him anyways in 2000.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Ming
                      I think the EC has long outlived it's real purpose. This lose the state by one vote crap and get nothing for it is just stupid. It is also another way to keep third party candidates out of the way.
                      I support the electoral college, but maybe we can make it so the electors can split their votes as Colorado is set to vote on.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Ming
                        Removing the electoral college will reverse the campaign stops... small states will then be ignored, and the larger states getting more attention. In a way, it will increase the "cost of entry" to a candidate. Instead of being able to focus dollars in the cheaper swing states.. the big states would become more important, and are far more expensive to advertise in.

                        Hmmmmm... that would make for more profits for advertising agencies and PR firms... Hmmmmm....
                        I'm against it because I'm from a small state. Our entire state would be a nuclear dumping ground

                        And if we didn't have the electoral college, democrats would win every single election.

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                        • #13
                          Why is that?
                          The framers of the Constitution found apportionment of power among states the toughest nut to crack and I have no doubt that it would be a very divisive issue nowadays as well. A measure of this difficulty in finding a compromise is that the system is rather elaborate in a document that is otherwise rather simple.

                          A split in the electoral college/popular vote hasn't happened that often and only happens when the popular vote is extremely close. Because of this, I see much higher risk of opening back up the issue versus accepting the status quo.
                          I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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                          • #14
                            It would be a disaster to get rid of the EC. Without it, large population centers would have too much influence in the election, people living in rural areas would essentially have no vote. After all, why both campaigning in small towns in the midwest when NYC has several million voters?

                            We must keep the EC system so that every state has a fair role in the election and is not disenfranchised.
                            'There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.'"
                            G'Kar - from Babylon 5 episode "Z'ha'dum"

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                            • #15
                              By the way, apportioning power among states is an unavoidable issue of a federal system. As the EU integrates further, I have no doubt that this will be the largest issue for them as well.
                              I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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