Electoral College: For or Against?

[duane1969]

I have been doing some reading and have developed the opinion that the Electoral College process reduces the voice of the individual and diminishes the value of some votes while maximizing the value of other votes. What do I mean? Let me explain.

I live in WV. In the 2008 election one candidate chose to ignore WV altogether during the entirer campaign period. Why? Simple, the election could be won without our Electoral votes. There was no value in our vote. Visiting us was a waste of time because winning or losing our state made little to no impact on the election outcome.

My suggestion is simple. Abolish the Electoral College system and make it a simple popular vote election. The candidate with the most votes wins. This would maximize each vote as elections could literally be decided by just a few thousand votes making every vote important.

Another result of abolishing the Electoral College is it would literally make every vote count. The current Electoral College system essentially renders votes irrelevant. If you vote but the candidate for the other party wins then your vote is essentially null and void because the Electoral College will award the other candidate the Electoral College vote for your area. Even though you didn't vote for that person they still get credit for winning your area making your vote for the other person irrelevant.

Opinions?

[Star_Cards]

against. it really makes zero sense and it makes a lot of votes not count. If a state is split 51% to 49% there are 49% of the people's votes that will not go to the candidate that they chose to vote for. True they get somewhat evened out because there are states who go to the other candidate that don't get counted, but why not count the votes one by one.

Also I know they rate the electoral vote values by population, but if they counted all of the votes they wouldn't have to estimate electoral votes. I also think the electoral college helps keep the two party system in power, which shouldn't be the case.

[mrveggieman]

Im all for getting rid of it. That way a particular canidate who ran in 2000 and again in 2004 will not have a unfair advantage because his brother was the governor of florida.

[ensbergcollector]

i think we should either go straight popular vote or find a way to tweak the electoral college. Meaning, if there is a 60/40 split then the electoral votes from that state should be split as well. Obviously would take some time to get right but it is better than what we have.

[#1 Broncos Fan]

i think we should either go straight popular vote or find a way to tweak the electoral college. Meaning, if there is a 60/40 split then the electoral votes from that state should be split as well. Obviously would take some time to get right but it is better than what we have.

+1