Defend the Ellectoral College!!

[Darkstar]

Protection of dissent? Maybe you missed the part where Tiberius explained how dissenting people don't even bother to vote in places they know they will lose because it would be futile.

[Annik]

I think it is even more important in the age of spin and big money.

Do you want the speed of information and propoganda to rule? How is that different than never having protection of dissent at all? If what you said happend then all it amounts to is the quickest person to convince the most people that killing Jews is good, would win.

The electoral college is EVEN MORE important now because of the speed of propaganda. It is not only a reminder of no absolute power, it is a speedbump.

I don't want to live in a neighborhood where people think they can drive formula 1s and feel they are intitled to run me over and blame me because I happend to be walking down the street.

You're nuts if you think that the E.C. actually helps with that. The Electoral College makes it so that you don't even have to get 51% to believe your bullshit, just 22% in the right states. It isn't balanced, it isn't fair and it's not representative of the nation's wishes.

[Minimalist]

Oh brian37, just like the disproportionate power given to low population states versus highly populated ones?

It seems that assends of nowhere like South Dakoto is given the same senate power as Texas and California, two of the most highly populated states in the Union...

The problem there, Moros, is that something cannot be unconstitutional if it is written into the constitution.

And the chance of amending it is exactly zero.

[IATIA]

You're nuts if you think that the E.C. actually helps with that. The Electoral College makes it so that you don't even have to get 51% to believe your bullshit, just 22% in the right states. It isn't balanced, it isn't fair and it's not representative of the nation's wishes.

Under constitutional law, there is no minimum. Some states have set up directives, but not all of them have.

[Tino]

I like the electoral college system. I believe the original intent was to give smaller states a greater impact than their population alone would justify. I think that's a good idea because states matter and they are greater than the sum of their parts.

[IATIA]

California - 55
Texas - 34
New York - 31
Florida - 27
Illinois - 21
Pennsylvania - 21
Ohio - 20
Michigan - 17
Georgia - 15
New Jersey - 15
North Carolina - 15

The other 39 states are moot.

[Minimalist]

I like the electoral college system. I believe the original intent was to give smaller states a greater impact than their population alone would justify.

So much for one-man one-vote. Not that republicans were ever big on that idea, anyway.

[TaraJo]

I still don't like the electoral college system. Truth is, in a presidential election, my vote has never mattered. I lived in Oklahoma until I turned 30 and that's just about the most conservative state there is. Both candidates ignored the whole state in every general election. Then I moved to Texas, a state that's much bigger with many more electoral college votes. Know what? The state still gets ignored because it's so solidly Republican. And instead of candidates talking about issues that matter to me, I get to watch them fight and struggle and spend millions of dollars to become president of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Because of the nature of the electoral college system, none of the candidates make serious campaigns in any of the three most populous states since California and New York are already solidly Democratic states and Texas is strongly Republican.

[Angrboda]

Back off bitch, t-t-t-t-t-alkin' 'bout my Constitution!

[Tiberius]

I like the electoral college system. I believe the original intent was to give smaller states a greater impact than their population alone would justify. I think that's a good idea because states matter and they are greater than the sum of their parts.

States do matter, but if you think the electoral college means smaller states get more say, you'd be wrong.

Out of the ten smallest states, only New Hampshire (9th smallest) is in the estimated 9 swing states that will win the election. Nevada is next (15th smallest), then Iowa (21st), Colorado (29th), Wisconsin (31st), Virginia (39th), North Carolina (41st), Ohio (44th), and finally Florida (47th).

Indeed, as I said before, because of the winner-takes-all nature of the electoral college, candidates can quite easily ignore states (both small and large) where they poll either very well or very badly. The focus is *always* on the swing states.