Should the electoral college be done away with?

[biggestal99]

@Auto129

Biden won by 4% of the vote. Biden received 32% more electors as a result.

This system is silly.

Actually biden won 51% of the vote and 57% or the electors.

Allan

[Optrader]

@Auto129

Biden won by 4% of the vote. Biden received 32% more electors as a result.

This system is silly.

The electoral college was built into our Republic to prevent the tyranny of the majority

[PurpnGold]

@Optrader

The electoral college was built into our Republic to prevent the tyranny of the majority

Now we have the tyranny of the minority

[merickson]

@Oldandtired

Nothing would change if you got your way and we went to a popular vote. All the less populated states would get ignored because the most votes would be in 9 or 10 states with the most population.
If it was changed to every states gets 50 EC votes than they would campaign in every state because there would not be Calif with 55 EC votes and Nebraska with 5. There would not be Calif. with a large population and Alaska with a small population.
…

You make it sound like campaign stops in a state is a good thing for that state.

[WuWei]

Mod Note

There is a 2020 Election Fraud thread if you wish to discuss “cheating”. Do not attempt to discuss it in any other thread.

[Auto129]

Now that most of the electoral college results are cemented, have any opinions changed?

By the end of election week, a candidate had obtained a clear majority of votes cast by American citizens. In a popular vote system, that would have been the end of it.

What followed, instead, were several procedural crises. An election that would otherwise be done and dusted, now hinged on handfuls of political elite litigating ways to deprive their subjects of a voice.

Reuters | Breaking International News & Views

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This whole affair, if successful, would have been a textbook example of tyranny. The electoral college provided all the leverage necessary for a tiny cabal to overturn an election. This system hinges on nothing but the grace of the elite.

[biggestal99]

@Auto129

This whole affair, if successful, would have been a textbook example of tyranny. The electoral college provided all the leverage necessary for a tiny cabal to overturn an election. This system hinges on nothing but the grace of the elite

Nah I went as it has went for 200 years.

The electors who were elected by popular vote. And Voted for the candidate who received the most votes.

Allan

[floydefisher]

Name me one nation that elects their leaders via direct election.

Take your time, I can wait.

[biggestal99]

@floydefisher

Name me one nation that elects their leaders via direct election

A lot of countries in South American directly elect their nations leaders

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, etc…

Allan

[zantax]

@biggestal99

@floydefisher

Name me one nation that elects their leaders via direct election

A lot of countries in South American directly elect their nations leaders

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, etc…

Allan

Yeah, we should emulate them, it’s worked out so well for them.

[biggestal99]

The question was asked and answered…

Also Austria elects directly.

Allan

[merickson]

@Auto129

Now that most of the electoral college results are cemented, have any opinions changed?

By the end of election week, a candidate had obtained a clear majority of votes cast by American citizens. In a popular vote system, that would have been the end of it.

What followed, instead, were several procedural crises. An election that would otherwise be done and dusted, now hinged on handfuls of political elite litigating ways to deprive their subjects of a voice.

…

This whole affair, if successful, would have been a textbook example of tyranny. The electoral college provided all the leverage necessary for a tiny cabal to overturn an election. This system hinges on nothing but the grace of the elite.

I have a different spin on what has happened in the weeks after the election.

There have be court case after court case that visibly, laughably failed to show that the election was a fraud. The claims of the election fraud crowd were laid out (as opposed to the “you know what we’re talking about claims” we often see on this forum) and shown to be laughably inadequate. The whole legal process has shown that the result of the election is valid.

The whole process could have been… but it wasn’t. Instead the process did its job, 1) got specific claims into the public sphere and 2) showed those claims for what they are.
i.e. the system worked, that is not evidence that the system should be changed.

[floydefisher]

In other words, no country you would want to emulate elects leaders directly.

And that is my point.

[DougBH]

The all or nothing allocation of a states electors works to the detriment of large states with lopsided liberal majorities in their votes, at the current time.
The rest of the arguments are used to justify or attack that effect.
The rest of the reasoning is just support for ones side.

The other relevant thing is that small states who feel they benefit politically from the EC are not going to give it up…and that is necessary in order to change the rule.
It is not going to happen.

[biggestal99]

@floydefisher

In other words, no country you would want to emulate elects leaders directly.

And that is my point.

Austria has direct elections also.

What’s wrong with that country?

Allan

[WuWei]

The whole affair was the popular vote.

[Guvnah]

If the EC should be done away with, it should only happen via Constitutional Amendment.

[tnt]

I am getting tired of every election hinging upon how a half a dozen states vote.

And my vote hasn’t mattered one bit since I went to school in Ohio.

[WuWei]

@Guvnah

If the EC should be done away with, it should only happen via Constitutional Amendment.

And it shouldn’t.

[Guvnah]

@WuWei

And it shouldn’t.

Absolutely true.