Electoral College

...and the states that don't go that way will have even more power. No sane small state would go with such idiocy.

You simply won't listen, will you?

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e individual states, to prevent an outsized federal government or mega-size states from bullying the small states into political non-existence. That's why the electoral college is composed the same way the Congress is put tog ether.

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hat happening

tate, because the net vote for the majority candidate of the state is now l ess. This is probably why most states do the all or nothing thing.

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Hmm OK I don't see why it tilts it towards the big states. Except for the "senatorial" EC votes which go with the whole state, each congressional district in the country would give one vote to the EC.

George H.

Correct. It's not going to happen. Eight states! Hilarious.

Because that's where the population density is.

"Except" for 1/5th of the votes... Good grief!

Check the electoral maps to see why your premise is wrong.

Really? You think the fact that there are only eight states signed on for now means it can't happen? You are an amazingly bigoted person.

Ya, that's such a liberal thing to do!

Mikek

never get anything right. The electoral college has nothing to do with "th e framers felt the average voter was not well enough informed to select a n ation wide president." The electoral college was designed to preserve the i dentity of the individual states, to prevent an outsized federal government or mega-size states from bullying the small states into political non-exis tence. That's why the electoral college is composed the same way the Congre ss is put together. If you went by popular vote, you would have CA NY PA an d FL pretty much running the election for president and everyone else might as well stay home! The election may be nationwide but it is not a national election, it is 50 individual state elections wherein people are voting on how they want their state to vote its electoral allocation. All this stuff about a nationwide popular vote is ill-informed garbage.

Back in the day when this was first conceived, it took forever and a day to hold an election, they would wait months for the results. The elector syst em eliminated that problem, with the elector vote supposedly representing h ow the majority went in their area of representation. They always used a po pular vote, they just didn't regard all people as being fit to vote, unfit people were not allowed to vote.

The electoral college was designed to preserve the identity of the individu al states, to prevent an outsized federal government or mega-size states fr om bullying the small states into political non-existence. That's why the e lectoral college is composed the same way the Congress is put together. If you went by popular vote, you would have CA NY PA and FL pretty much runnin g the election for president and everyone else might as well stay home!

Cheers, James Arthur

Having a rational discussion is not a liberal or conservative thing to do. It's a rational thing to do.

Using a popular vote tilts things toward the big states because they have more people. But that is a somewhat arbitrary distinction, state vs. state. The important thing is that a popular vote counts what is important, the popular vote.

The electoral college doesn't even emphasize the largest states. California and Texas were both pretty well decided far before the election (California moreso than Texas). But many middle size states with very close votes were emphasized all through the campaign and the entire focus in the final few weeks. That's the part that is really troubling. The electoral college is promoting exactly the opposite of what it was intended to prevent as well as frustrating the will of the people.

Yes, the apportioned electoral voting scheme was the original method. But at some point it was skewed by states deciding to cast all their electoral votes with the popular vote across the state rather than each elector being chosen by district. That is the current perversion of the system.

That is nonsense because it assumes everyone in those entire states vote for the same candidate which is absurd! Do you actually understand what is being discussed here?

never get anything right. The electoral college has nothing to do with "th e framers felt the average voter was not well enough informed to select a n ation wide president." The electoral college was designed to preserve the i dentity of the individual states, to prevent an outsized federal government or mega-size states from bullying the small states into political non-exis tence. That's why the electoral college is composed the same way the Congre ss is put together. If you went by popular vote, you would have CA NY PA an d FL pretty much running the election for president and everyone else might as well stay home! The election may be nationwide but it is not a national election, it is 50 individual state elections wherein people are voting on how they want their state to vote its electoral allocation. All this stuff about a nationwide popular vote is ill-informed garbage.

The media are precisely an issue here, because a main purpose of having intermediaries select the president was to tamp down the effect of popular passions, passions that the media have made it precisely their business to inflame.

No need to wonder when we can RTM...

"It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.

It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.

It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States. But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief. The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes. And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place." --Publius, The New York Packet, March 14, 1788

But they did not anticipate a nation-wide media...

"Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States." --ibid

Cheers, James Arthur

Bashing one over the head with ideas and cutting off conversation is a liberal trait. Mikek

And we're back to the media promulgating the fictions of "the Black community" and certain states exclusively comprising White Supremacists.

Mark L. Fergerson

The original requirement to be able to vote was you had to own property. Bring that back and the lefties would be seriously count-reduced >:-}

Or a random question about the Constitution required to be answered correctly at the polls door... that ought to eliminate the lefties completely >:-} ...Jim Thompson

"If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe." -Thomas Jefferson, Jan 6, 1816, letter to Chas. Yancey

Cheers, James Arthur

I received an E-mail from the MIT Alumni Association yesterday, quoting a letter from the MIT president, excerpted:

"Today, we learned that we will have a new administration in Washington that promises a great deal of change. "

those changes welcome. Some will not. "

"As I saw this afternoon, students have wrapped the six great columns in Lobby 7 with huge sheets of paper. Three ask that you "Share Your Hopes," three to "Share Your Fears." They are covered with handwritten responses. People are lingering to read and add their own. Many say they fear for the future of the country, some for their personal safety, for their civil rights or that "my values no longer matter." Others fear that their peers will never take the time to understand why they voted for the winner. One hope struck me in particular: "I hope to understand the 48% of Americans who disagree with me." Nearly all the writers express some kind of pain. Yet together they have created a wonderful example of mutual respect and civil dialogue."

I E-mailed back:

"So it's now openly admitted that MIT is a leftist university populated by snowflakes >:-}

I saw this coming around 10 years ago while I was still an EC interviewing potential admittees... my choices of good ol' nerdy geeks who would make good engineers were being rejected and the "well-rounded" were being accepted.

So, after 19 years of official EC time, and many years before there was an official title, I resigned... and removed MIT from my will.

And, yes, I voted for Donald Trump.... Hillary would have finished the trashing of the Constitution."

...Jim Thompson

only you and your puppet followers,.. Slowman included!

You both must share the same room..

Jamie