Get Rid Of Electoral College?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 ElectionApparently a majority of Americans are in favor of it, but is it likely that we can switch without some serious movement in the halls of power?
Many adults in the United States are questioning the way their head of state us elected, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 54 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should get rid of the Electoral College so that the winner of the popular vote becomes president. [...]On Aug. 25, Democratic California senator Dianne Feinstein called for the abolition of the Electoral College, saying, “The current system enables a handful of states to become battleground states, and disenfranchises tens of millions of American voters in the most important election in the nation. By amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College, and replacing it with a system in which the winner is the candidate with the most votes nationwide, we will ensure that the method of electing the president and vice-president is fair and uniform.” [...]
Should the United States get rid of the Electoral College so that the winner of the popular vote becomes president?
Yes 54%
No 30%
I like “fair and uniform”…how about you?
This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 and is filed under 2008 Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
There’s something I learned a long time ago, just because a majority of Americans support change doesn’t mean our government is going to enact it.
Anything that would hurt the co-ruling parties hold on power is sure to meet indifference and/or resistance. Abolishing the Electoral College would open up the playing field for viable third-party candidates, and the co-rulers don’t want to see anything of the kind. They are used to power, it doesn’t matter that the two parties sold out America long ago, they intend to stay hell or high water.
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Of course, abolishing the Electoral College just turns the problem the other way. If we abolish it, candidates will completely ignore low-population states and campaign almost solely in New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Illinois and Florida.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I’ve thought that the Electoral College should be eliminated ever since my first social sciences class that taught about it.
September 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 pm
I’ve been in favor of its removal for a few decades as well. In addition, I personally think the primary system needs to be completely revamped.
We should have some sort of system whereby anyone who gets enough popular support ends up on the final ballot, and then instead of a single-vote method (very primitive by scientific standards), each voter rank all candidates in order of preference (or at least the top 3). From this list, you then do sequential eliminations of those receiving the least votes, until you get to the candidate that maybe isn’t everyone’s favorite, but at least they can stand.
The users on this site should love that idea (at least the truly moderate ones), as it would tend to eliminate both the far left and far right candidates right off the bat, as well as the ones that are repulsive to a large number of voters (Bush, Hillary, Romney).
September 4th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Surely it should be done away with. While a constitutional amendment would be best, the next best thing is available: the National Popular Vote interstate compact, already signed in Maryland. Check it out at nationalpopularvote.com
September 4th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Here’s more about Instant Runoff Voting, the system sleipner describes:
http://instantrunoff.com/
http://www.fairvote.org/irv/
September 5th, 2007 at 10:06 am
[...] Gardner at Donklephant asks if we should Get Rid of the Electoral College. On Aug. 25, Democratic California senator Dianne Feinstein called for the abolition of the [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Perhaps we should also abolish the US Senate since it is even less proportional than the electoral college. In fact by definition, congress is proportioned exactly the same way as the electoral college. Let’s abolish the Senate, and make all House elections national popular elections. Then we could have a government which best serves the will of the American people right?
Or we could consider for a moment that this country is a federation of individual states which have rights over and above the sum total of the rights of the citizens residing in each state….
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
[...] the people. The House and Senate are Checks against the Electoral College. Even in spite of the people espousing their belief that the Electoral College is not needed, there are some who read between the lines of [...]