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Originally Posted by bmadison
The problem with voting for President is that it only matters in a few states. With the Electoral College, you're vote doesn't matter in most states. For example, I live in California. I WAS a Bush supporter and voted for him twice; however, California's Electoral College votes all went to Gore and Kerry, respectively. So, in essence, I didn't ever vote for Bush (Which makes me feel better about myself and my past character decisions). Georgia is historically a Red State, thus, no matter who you vote for, you will be voting Republican. In many states, the politicians who makeup the EC do not even have to vote with the popular vote, which would effectively make all votes in that state worthless.
I would say that if Georgia is a state that the EC has to vote on the popular vote, or they decide to do away with the EC system, you should vote for the candidate you believe in. On the flip side, if it always has been a Red State (or a Blue State) and always will be one regardless of the popular vote, it really doesn't matter. In that case, stick to voting on referendums and city and state government officials, because that is the only way you can change the color of most states.
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The idea that your vote is less important because of the Electoral College is just plain false. Quite simply, your vote is more likely to determine the outcome of a state election (Electoral College) than it is to determine the outcome of a national election (popular vote). It's better for your vote to be one of 30 million than one of 300 million. Yes, sometimes that may work to your disadvantage (2000), but that is a very rare occurrance.
That's not to say the United States election system isn't without problems, but the Electoral College is the undeserving scapegoat of those problems. If you want to talk about what
really needs to be changed, it's how we count votes. When it comes to producing the candidate that the most people can feel decent about, the plurality system we use is one of the worst. We need to count votes using a method which complies with the
Condorcet criterion, and this would only make voting marginally more complicated for the average American. Instead of voting on one person, all they'd have to do is rank candidates. It's the way we count votes that is at the core of unpleasant election results, not the Electoral College.