Has the electoral college out lived it's usefulness?

Answer 1

That's for sure, and my reasoning comes from Al Gores 500,000 vote win with the popular vote..........enough said!

Answer 2

The only reason this issue has resurfaced is because Al Gore lost the Whitehouse in 2000. Now, before we go too far it should be said that I know Al Gore personally. He's a smart man, but what he did following the 2000 election was just plain dumb.

Gore lost the Presidency because he lost his homestate of Tennessee. When was the last time a major Presidential candidate failed to carry his homestate? The bottom line is that the voters who knew him best voted for his opponent.

Now let's look at the Electoral College. Anyone can serve on it. All you have to do is go to a couple Party Conventions and run for the position of Elector.

It exists as part of the United States Constitution for a very good reason. The framers of that document debated over this pretty intensly. Some argued that our system of government be decided entirely by public vote. Others wanted to limit the federal government and protect small states as well as states rights in general. This was the key compromise that gave us both the United States Senate and the Electoral College.

What will happen if the Electoral College is abolished? Major states will control national politics entirely. CA, TX, NY, FL, PA, OH, IL, MI would definitely be states that benefited because small states would count even less because you would essentially be taking away much of their political power.

Here's the question you have to ask yourself, especially if you live in another state other than the above. Do you want to lose your two United States Senators? Because that's what will be next once the Electoral College disappears.

I happen to live in one of the "big" states but I'm looking at this from the point of view of citizens who live in ME, NH, VT, RI, CT, DE, DC, MD, WV, VA, AL, MS, LA, AR, TN, KY, IN, WI, MN, IA, ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, MT, WY, CO, NM, AZ, NV, ID, UT, AK, HI, WA and OR. 36 states, plus DC, will be definite losers were the Electoral College to be abolished.

7 states would be definite winners with maybe 7 somewhere in between. Abolishing the Electoral College sounds like a good idea. I used to believe it was the right thing to do. Until I thought about it some more. There are many issues like this.

Take term limits for example. It sounds like a good idea to most voters. But in reality what it does is limit the wisdom and experience of our elected representatives while allowing special interest lobbyists to essentially run the ball game with a new set of inexperienced elected officials being elected regularly. When you think about the consequences of term limits it's simply a bad idea at it's best and it would hurt the voters and citizens the most.

The same is true of abolishing the Electoral College. Essentially, the only reason it's even being discussed is because Al Gore lost and the Democrats have been pushing the issue to stire the pot. The fact is, the system works and changing it would hurt many people. Sometimes the public parrots what they hear instead of thinking things through before jumping to conclusions.

I had this exact conversation with a young man from New Mexico. He was for abolishing the Electoral College and I explained how it would hurt him politically as a resident of NM. After a few minutes, he said he'd never looked at it this way.

Answer 3

No, its there to protect from voter irregularies, and plus popular vote is not always the most educated vote voters make according to the founding fathers. Electoral college makes it so politcains have to actually visit small states to pick up, and pay attiention to the rural voters actually.

Answer 4

No. It insures that any person elected as President has widespread support throughout the country. It also obviates the need for a complete national recount in the event that the election is particularly close in one or two states.

Answer 5

Nope

The problem is if we went with a straight populus vote.
All the canidates have to do is win the big states and the smaller states would be shut out.

They would be holding to those big states and to the little states would get the crumbs.

Answer 6

Zero1 is right and Mark D is, fortunately, wrong. It is not that easy to alter the US Constitution. Otherwise America would already be a theocratic fascist state (a western equivalent of radical Islamic nations).

The only people that want to rewrite the Constitution and, thus, destroy America’s secular democratic republic and allow social issues to be determined based on popularity polls are the religious-political conservatives who want to impose their perverted beliefs and lifestyle on the rest of the population.

Answer 7

the electoral collage has it's flaws, but historicly it worked for us to. for example abe lincon didnt win the popular vote, but the electoral collage made him president.

Answer 8

Yep. Let's get rid of it. Just amend the Constitution. It isn't that hard to do.

Answer 9

YES IT HAS!