IMO, it should go. Popular vote should be the one that matters. Candidates only caring about securing the strategic states with more votes is ridiculous. But i guess we need something to show on television... to entertain us and make us swear at the swing states. But in all seriousness, I don't see why/how US citizens haven't demanded for the popular vote to be the one that decides all. Should have made a poll, but curious what others think. Electoral College... yay or nay?
I agree. Every vote should count. Although the electoral college works most of the time, there have been years where it failed. For example, in 2000 Gore won the popular vote. Yet, he lost the official election by the electoral votes. In those instances, the "majority" was not heard.
When the Constitution was ratified perhaps 10% of the population could vote. During most of the time of Victorian England as many as 15% of the population could vote.
I know there's the issue of small states being ignored in favor of big population centers. But, IMO, that's not nearly the problem it would have been in the past. TV is the great equalizer there.
The big problem is that at any point in time, there are two possibilities:
1) The EC would lead to the same result as the popular vote, in which case, there's nothing to override the inertia of the current system.
2) The popular vote would lead to a different result than the EC, in which case, the party that would win via the EC will fight like heck to keep the status quo.
In either case, the forces in place to keep the EC are very strong.
Frankly, it's the same issue we have with gerrymandered congressional districts. Of 435 congressional districts, fewer than 50 are competitive in any election. That means that most representatives are well served to cater to their base, rather than to the majority of us who are somewhat in the middle.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in more than 3/4ths of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the primaries.
When the bill is enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls in closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%,, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%. Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions possessing 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
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And once it was an electoral tie decided by the Senate against the popular vote winner who won a substantial pure victory and was the only person to ever win an outright majority and still lose.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
I first heard about this measure on Al Franken's radio show probably 8 years ago. I would support the measure in my state, and think it's the right way to go. I just think the institutional forces against it are too strong and that it will be difficult to get enough states to get 270 on this.
The candidates will spend virtually no time or money in New York, California, Texas, or 80% of the rest of the states. By the way, those three represent 1/3 of the US population.
The election will center on Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and maybe 4 others. The rest of the country doesn't exist to these guys.
The candidates will spend virtually no time or money in New York, California, Texas, or 80% of the rest of the states. By the way, those three represent 1/3 of the US population.
The election will center on Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and maybe 4 others. The rest of the country doesn't exist to these guys.
At least those states are somewhat balanced.
You campaign in the top 20 cities, there's no balance.
The candidates will spend virtually no time or money in New York, California, Texas, or 80% of the rest of the states. By the way, those three represent 1/3 of the US population.
The election will center on Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and maybe 4 others. The rest of the country doesn't exist to these guys.
A hundred million people live in a 100 mile wide corridor from Northern VA to Boston. That's simply where the people are. In the back of my mind I've got to think that the 1,254,000 people who live in North Dakota and Wyoming combined, an area of 440,000 sqkm which larger than Germany and the Czech Republic combined choose to live there specifically not to have an awful lot to do with the government and the government should have little interaction with them. Maybe from a cost benefit perspective, in person campaigning isn't worth very much to them.
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Electoral College 
