please explain how the electoral college is majority rule because i've never understood that?

Question

why should there be a certain amt of votes per state and they will all go to one party instead of a percentage of them according to what the voters want? electoral college for dummies here please!!

Answer 1

it represents the majority because each state is assigned a number of electoral college votes based on population, so if the majority of one large state votes one way then they can use their size to influence the election.

Answer 2

Actually, states determine how electoral college votes are alloted.

Some states like (Nebraska?) do split up electoral votes by congressional district.

However, most states don't like to diluate their power. You're more likely to get a politician to campaign in your state and pay attention to your concerns and issues if he/she feels that he can win all of the electoral votes.

PS: In case anyone bashes the electoral college system... the process works, especially for a large country like ours. It makes sure there is a definite winner and if there are any close elections, they are on the state level. That's why Florida was the only state that had a recount even though the whole country had a relatively close vote.

Imagine if we had no electoral college in 1876, 1960, 1968 and 2000? It would have been chaos in the whole land so the Electoral College has worked wonderfully for more than 200 hundred years.

Answer 3

It isn't majority rule, so don't feel dumb. (Feel ignorant b/c you were never taught how the framers put our gov't together, and feel enlightened now that you're learning it by yourself.)

The electoral college is quite literally a tool that kept the educated elite in control of the ignorant masses. We give everyone (meaning all property owners) the vote, but some of them might not be so smart and they might vote for a bad candidate. So we put the Electoral College in between so that if the harebrained voters in a particular state vote for somebody who won't do the job well, the smarties in the E.C. can fix it by voting against the populace.

Now that we're (supposedly) an educated society, the argument is that we don't need the Electoral College, voters are as well-educated as the members of the E.C. are and the will of the people should prevail no matter what.

Answer 4

You aren't misunderstanding. It's simply that, repeatedly, by BOTH sides at various times during our history, both groups go into the election KNOWING about the electoral college, hoping it will work to their benefit, and then come out after they lose with the complaint, "It's a flawed system! It's cheating! It should be abolished (right after our rightful revote!).

It's kind of silly, like playing poker, then complaining after you lose that aces should have been wild, again, afer you lose.

The electoral college was created to protect the smaller states against the immense advantage larger states have. We are not a democracy, but a democratic representative republic. That means that each state to join must be a republic. Each state decides the votes (in theory) of their representative. Each state has two representatives, so ultimately Texas gets the same number of votes in the end as Rhode Island.

These representatives, chosen by the voters of each state by democratic means, go and vote. VERY rarely one of them ignores the mandate of the voters and votes differently. They usually get raked over the coals for it.

In the end, this system has been around since our founding father's days and was meant to prevent the larger colonies/states from stealing everything away from the smaller states. The only one's who originally opposed it were some of the larger states.

Those that want to abolish it don't really get far. The smaller states would oppose it every time. It isn't majority rule of people.

It's majority rule by state vote.

Answer 5

There is no reason why the electoral votes cannot be apportioned. A lot of people have tried to do just that, but to no avail.

We really don't need the college at all, anymore. It was invented at a time when there was no instant communication. Today, we could use direct elections, like every other democracy in the world.

Answer 6

The electoral college has nothing to do with majority rule.

It has happened that one canidate get the majority of the popular vote and still lose the election.

It was set up to try and make the president office more representitive of a full group of people, not merely a majority from large metro areas or large populaton areas.

Answer 7

sure (or, a minimum of, semi-majority rule). The electors are equivalent to the form of Congress persons each state has. each state gets 2 for their 2 Senators (each state has 2 Senators), and then each state gets additionally the comparable form of electors as they have Representatives, it is measured via inhabitants. If in straightforward terms the electors equating to the form of Representatives, it is measured via inhabitants, have been to vote, it would greater or less replicate majority rule, notwithstanding including the Senators makes it in straightforward terms semi-majority rule. it is not a democratic majority rule via using electors, the electoral college, and maximum states have a "winner take all" allocation of electors with out considering the votes solid in different states.

Answer 8

The Electoral College is an anachronism and should be abolished.
However, the whole US Political System is a disaster and the USA should learn that True Democracy in Parliamentary Government.

Answer 9

There is one electorial vote per so many people. Same number as representatives of your state. You vote how many of them vote which way. For some states is all or nothing aka if 51% one guy the whole state has to vote all of its representatives for that guy. Other states have it where if you have 50% for one guy 50% for another then the votes get split between the candidtates.