Why VOTE if the electoral college does what it wants without care for us?

Question

I was reading up on the EC and was wondering why we vote? I thought our votes told the electoral college who we wanted. Who ever won the majority of the peoples vote is the one who the electoral college votes for on our behalf. At least I thought so. I found out the EC can vote anyway they want to and often ignore the popular vote. Why?

Can anyone explain this to me?

Message was edited by: jng2006

I guesse this question should be is the electoral college a viable thing to do when our government ignores so much of our wishes? I also dont think Scooter Libby answer was much help.

Also I vote in every election. Even the local ones.

Answer 1

The electoral delegates CANNOT generally vote anyway they like. Hundreds of years ago, people did not have any knowledge of candidates outside of their own geographic areas, and so the freedom of the delegates was allowed in case, when they got to washington, it was apparent that a different vote would be in the best interest of the state.

However, since then, most states have passed laws legally binding their delegates to vote as directed by the voters of their state. In almost every case, they can no longer vote according to their own discretion.


PS. I seriously doubt that the electoral college system is a significant reason why some people don't vote, as namsaev says.

Answer 2

You are confused. Do you remember the last presidential election? Did you watch it on television? When they counted the popular vote they used the EC count to decide who was ahead in the election. At this point in time the electoral college is more of a legal formality than anything else. if you don't want to vote in a presidential election because of the EC than don't. But feel free to research and cast a vote for any of the other elections which are won by popular vote. In some ways those are actually more important than the presidential. These are the people who will determine when your roads are repaired, how much garbage collection will cost and what is taught in your schools.

Answer 3

Very good question. It's my opinion the EC vote allocation is one of the greatest reasons why more people don't vote. And you are right there is nothing that says an elector HAS to vote for who got the most votes in a state alothough that is generally what happens.

Why does one candidate get all the EC votes when they didn't get all the popular votes. That is what bothers me. My opinion is EC votes a state gets should be allocated on a percentage basis. Take the 2000 election in Florida. All the voters didn't vote for Bush. But Bush got all the EC votes.

I think more people would vote if it were percentage weighted.

Answer 4

Only Federal positions are determined by the EC. Even though the EC has the ability to vote however they like, I don't know of any instance in recent history where they voted against the majority. As for all the other people you pull the lever for in your state elections, the count is the actual vote tally. The EC was set up to give even small population states a bit of pull in an election. It has worked for over 200 years. I see no reason to mess with it.

Answer 5

In most states, the electors are bound by law to vote for who they said they'd vote for. Even when and where they weren't, the number of faithless electors have been very few in number (only 8 in the last 100 years), and hasn't affected the results of any election since 1836.

Answer 6

When we get the same exact number of people living in each and every state I will consider your request. But since California, Texas, and New York currently make up over 25% of the population, I am going to support the Electoral College.

Answer 7

LIBBY IS A TRAITOR...

Reporter's Account Hurts Libby Defense
Miller Testifies of White House Aide's Unmasking of Agent
By Carol D. Leonnig and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page A01


Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller yesterday helped the prosecutor who landed her in jail and forced her into the witness chair, providing potentially damaging information about the confidential administration source she tried to shield, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Deliberately and sometimes defensively offering her account in Libby's perjury trial, Miller told the jury that "a very irritated and angry" Libby told her in a confidential conversation on June 23, 2003, that the wife of a prominent critic of the Iraq war worked at the CIA. Libby had told investigators he believed he first learned that information from another journalist nearly three weeks later -- the assertion at the core of the charges against him.



Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, center, leaves U.S. Federal Court House in Washington Monday with members of his legal team. (Kevin Wolf - AP)
More on the Libby Trial

The perjury trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff calls up high-profile witnesses.
Evidence Entered in Trial Government exhibits used in the trial in the format admitted in the court.
Indictment: U.S. v Libby
The Verdict
Timeline
Photos: Libby Trial
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Miller testified that Libby, then the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, shared this information as they talked alone in his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and that he complained that the CIA and a former ambassador were unfairly trying to blame the White House for using faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. He then mentioned that the wife of the ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, worked at a bureau of the CIA.

Answer 8

The electoral college can, but almost never does, vote against the wishes of the electorate of the state they represent.

That being said, the electoral college needs to be gotten rid of and we need a national majority vote for president.

Answer 9

It's needed in case the Diebolt machines don't work, and you get too much democracy involved.

Answer 10

I guess you have no respect for the US Constitution