Political discussion thread

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

 thellama73 wrote:

 The T wrote:

Can someone explain me why the electoral college exists? It's so idiotic that a candidate can win popular vote (Gore 2000, apparently Romney 2012) but lose the election.

From my understanding, it primarily exists because of a combination of two things.

1) the slowness of transmitting information in the 1700s required them to use electors, so that if something major happened in the country between the time people voted and the time the votes reached Washington, the electors could change their mind as circumstances warranted.

2) to give greater weight to small states than is warranted by their population, as a concession to them agreeing to join the union in the first place.

Both of these reasons are irrelevant today and of course the system is idiotic and should be retired. I hope that if there is an electoral-popular split tonight we will have a serious talk about getting rid of it.

Well, you can always make the argument that the current electoral system gives some power to the states, which is one of the things the founding fathers intended (many of them had principles that leaned more towards localization than mass democracy).  Another reason is that many were fearful of majority rule, and didn't want our president elected just by the masses.  The system doesn't work the way the founding fathers actually intended, though (thank God) and I'm in favor of abolishing it if only to reduce the dominance of the two-party system.