Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - A revision to the electoral college system?

Rekna · 01-01-2004, 12:34 PM

Before you can start to question the electoral college we need to look at why we have it.

The electoral college was formed for a couple reasons. First and foremost the founding fathers did not want high-population areas (the coasts) to have sweeping power over the lower population areas (midwest). This way you would not have urban areas completely controling rural areas. This would still be a concern today. If you do the math you can see that smaller states get more electoral votes per person. Even though the number of electoral votes they get are very small.

Second before we had instant communication relaying the talleys of votes to washington was a daunting task, it was much simpler to send a representative to say which canidatate the state supports rather than try to send the information of every ballot. This obviously would not be a problem any more today.

There are some major flaws with the electoral college. The first is the people who relay the votes are appointed officials and not elected. The reason this is a big flaw will be clear in a second. In addition the appointies are not required to vote the same way as the state. That is a state could vote 90% in favor of one canidate and that canidate could still loose the election if the appointe voted differently. Since they are not elected the public would have no reprisal.

There are some serious flaws in the electoral college but there are some good strengths also. Any replacement to the electoral college would have to address the first point in some way.

01-01-2004, 12:34 PM	#5 (permalink)
Rekna Junkie	Before you can start to question the electoral college we need to look at why we have it. The electoral college was formed for a couple reasons. First and foremost the founding fathers did not want high-population areas (the coasts) to have sweeping power over the lower population areas (midwest). This way you would not have urban areas completely controling rural areas. This would still be a concern today. If you do the math you can see that smaller states get more electoral votes per person. Even though the number of electoral votes they get are very small. Second before we had instant communication relaying the talleys of votes to washington was a daunting task, it was much simpler to send a representative to say which canidatate the state supports rather than try to send the information of every ballot. This obviously would not be a problem any more today. There are some major flaws with the electoral college. The first is the people who relay the votes are appointed officials and not elected. The reason this is a big flaw will be clear in a second. In addition the appointies are not required to vote the same way as the state. That is a state could vote 90% in favor of one canidate and that canidate could still loose the election if the appointe voted differently. Since they are not elected the public would have no reprisal. There are some serious flaws in the electoral college but there are some good strengths also. Any replacement to the electoral college would have to address the first point in some way.