Why do we have an electoral college?

[irwin]

I was reminded of this topic from one of TLG's posts. I never understood why we had the electoral college. Why doesn't the popular vote rule? I don't see why it can't be as simple as the person with the most votes, wins. Or am I just missing something?

[m0j0]

it's to keep places and peoples that are more well populated than others from having more representation than those of lesser populated places and peoples. i can't get much more into it than that....i am watching "being john malkovitch." but imagine that you want to elect a certain candidate for a variety of reasons....most of them benefitting your immediate area which is densely populated with arrogant snobs who could care less about the rest of the country (no, this is not an editorial comment about any candidate in particular...it's just to make a point). without an electoral college, your candidate could easily win to serve your best interests without regard for the rest of the country. think about it...and i know it will come to you. as to whether it is the best way....i don't know that. as to what anyone saying about what actually happened in the last election...i hope that you will have enough sense to not get your news from these forums, but from your own research. in fact, don't listen to opinions...just gather the facts and create your own....lest you receive a bias which may not fit you.

[fakesurfers]

Actually, the Electoral College was created to subvert the will of the people. The 'Founding Fathers' considered the masses too easily swayed and consequently prone to electing demagogoues. Therefore, people (and this was only white guys with significant land holdings) would elect 'learned men' to decide who should be president and use the vote of the people in their state as a guide. It actually disenfranchises people on large states. When it comes to voting for your (hopefully you will vote) choice, as a Californian, your vote means less than a vote from South Dakota or West Virginia. So, to answer your question, for most people the Electoral College is a ripoff.

M0j0: I read the same thing you said during the Florida fiasco. I think it's a flawed argument. Who do you appeal to regionally that cancels out every other region? Texas has more Democrats than Massachusetts. California has more Republicans than half the Deep South. You would still need a national majority to win.

[m0j0]

actually i didn't read that during the florida fiasco. i read it in college a few years back. and the whole "learned men" thing seems to go along with it as well....i didn't include that because i am watching john malkovich (i still am, but i got up to take a leak). and i hope you don't really think it comes down to democrats and republicans. that in itself is a flawed argument.

[fakesurfers]

Originally posted by m0j0
actually i didn't read that during the florida fiasco. i read it in college a few years back. and the whole "learned men" thing seems to go along with it as well....i didn't include that because i am watching john malkovich (i still am, but i got up to take a leak). and i hope you don't really think it comes down to democrats and republicans. that in itself is a flawed argument.

Dems and Repubs? no... I favor the Democrats, true, but basically I trust the people of the United States like the Founding Fathers were afraid to.

[irwin]

Ah, it's so clear now.

[Edited by Passwird on 06-10-2001 at 01:16 AM]

[TheLoneGunman]

Electrical College?

You mean like ITT tech?

That is for people for need a quick degree or aren't smart enough to get into Stanford or MIT.


Electoral College -- For "C" students who aren't smart enough to get into the White House on the popular vote.

[m0j0]

:disa:

this could go on for days...if i let it. some ppl can't see that there was sh*t going on on both sides of this last election. whine, whine, whine.

i hope you're happy for bringing it up, passwird :P

[renots]

Originally posted by fakesurfers
Actually, the Electoral College was created to subvert the will of the people. The 'Founding Fathers' considered the masses too easily swayed and consequently prone to electing demagogoues.

YUP, you can thank the electoral college for preventing the rise of a mao, lenin, or a stalin in this country. All dem socialists want to do once they get in power is kill off tons of people, so then the government burden won't be so high. America definately has it's bright side when you've read ur history rather than allow urself to be led by blind hate

Arm urself with gnowledge and let no fool disarm U

[OC]

I find it strange that in this day and age the highest office in the country is the ONLY one that can be won without a majority vote. I'll accept that the founding fathers felt that the Electoral College was necessary for their day, but guess what? Slavery was abolished, "land owners" barely exist any more, and women can vote now too! It's way past time for the Electoral College to be replace with a simple majority vote.

And as for whining - all the GD Republicans did all throughout the Clinton presidency was attack him left and right. I don't think Dubya can lead this country in a manner that I trust (which is what political opinions are all about), and I'm not about to shut up about it just because you deign to call it "whining". I do not "whine" because Gore lost, I do not "whine" because I'm a liberal - I "whine" because I do not trust Dubya, and I disagree with most of his policies. Just because we're stuck with him for four years is no reason to keep opinions to yourself, and I mean this for everyone, Dems and Republicans and others alike.

Part of the reason why we have such poor leadership in this country (at many political levels) is that people often only think about political issues during an election season and too often they simply believe the TV and radio ads without doing much research into an issue. This means that a lot of politicians get away with things they should not get away with. I am not one of those people that ignores issues and forgets the mistakes of our leaders so easily.

-OC

[renots]

Originally posted by overclocked
I find it strange that in this day and age the highest office in the country is the ONLY one that can be won without a majority vote. I'll accept that the founding fathers felt that the Electoral College was necessary for their day, but guess what? Slavery was abolished, "land owners" barely exist any more, and women can vote now too! It's way past time for the Electoral College to be replace with a simple majority vote.

If that's true lets hold a constitutional convention to modify the system. Until then the electoral college is the system everyone's agreed on so we can't bitch when it works the way it works. It's just that most people don't really care enough to make it an issue with their representatives, so we're stuck with the system we got. We could be marxists, and try to change the constitution without due process, but then that wouldn't be following the rules now would it?

[m0j0]

it is just whining (and not much more) when ppl stick it in every thread possible regardless of if it is appropriate or not. if it is the topic, fine. but don't subject us all to that crap at every chance. it's boring and make some of us look like sore losers.

[Talk2raffi]

It is because people are for the most part unintelligent, and the government didn't want to trust them to picking a president.

[plutarcho]

Start with the Federalist Papers.

[revil]

too keep people like hapoo from thinking they can elect themselves to the presidency

[ProMinx]

1: California is a Democratic state (unfortunately)
2: Good luck getting 2/3 of the states to agree to throw a constitutional convention
3: didn't we all learn all of this stuff back in elementary school? i would say high school...but i never took a high school government class. It is required in my state, but my counselors agreed that I didn't have to waste my time, gave me two semesters with automatic A's, and called it "AP Government/Economics" on my record...while really giving me a free period both semesters. Can't say that I can complain too much, but occasionally I wish that I knew a few Gov't systems (supreme court and appellate process specifically) a little bit better...but it seems that the majority of people still didn't learn much from HS Gov't...

[OC]

Originally posted by ProMinx
...but it seems that the majority of people still didn't learn much from HS Gov't...
We can't even count on schools to teach students how to use "your" and "you're" correctly, so how can we expect them to properly teach history?

-OC