Agreed Todd. It's an imperfect system, but it could be worse. But it could also be damn better on the other hand.

If we were to get rid of the EC there are about 40 states that would no longer have any reason to be a part of the United STATES of America.

I see, it's not really one man, one vote

No it is not, nor has it ever been...that's how a representative republic works, which is what we are.

It's one man, one vote, for everything other than the President.

Fish on...

Todd

A decent article on the subject

The reason it will never happen because it is guaranteed to put the gears in motion for a RichG led coup that will have every redneck/gnome/samsquanch in America logging off their neo-nazi/pepe facebook pages, climbing out of the bunkers and singlewide trailers, pulling out their AR15s and slapping the white house. In the ENTIRE HISTORY of our country there have only been ~175 (1% total) electoral voters that have dissented against the people, and most of those were flipped because a candidate passed away in the late 1800's during an election.

The presence of the EC has now given inordinate power and access to "battleground" states, most notably Florida and North Carolina. I think its time to revisit this. It's important to remember that one of the reasons for the EC is that some of the framers thought the election of the President was too important to be entrusted to the People. Electors in some States (including ours) are not bound to vote for the Popular vote winner. This is a system that has outlived its usefulness and should be changed, IMHO.

The presence of the EC has now given inordinate power and access to "battleground" states, most notably Florida and North Carolina. I think its time to revisit this. It's important to remember that one of the reasons for the EC is that some of the framers thought the election of the President was too important to be entrusted to the People. Electors in some States (including ours) are not bound to vote for the Popular vote winner. This is a system that has outlived its usefulness and should be changed, IMHO.

I think one of the beauties of our system at the Federal level is a reasonable attempt to balance urban vs. rural. While the initial reason for this was probably, as noted, rooted in slave vs. free states it now balances urban vs. rural. It should be quite obvious that most urban folks don't give a flying fvck for the needs and concerns of rural folks. Rural areas are their playgrounds. The rurals have the same disconnect; the urban folk are clueless dolts who we need to feed, clothe, provide fiber, provide energy, and so on.

If either side gains control of the government there will be serious problems because neither side considers the concerns or lifestyles of the other as valid.

I can't just whine and make it better??

So, why is the President and VP the only offices that the Electoral College is used for? Back when our Framers created the Constitution what was the most prevalent type of Government in the world? It was Royalty. The top dog ascended by Birthright. As much as these rabble rousing revolutionaries were willing to risk, they still accepted that the top person was special. BTW - Hillary now leads by 500,000 votes in the Popular vote. If this trend continues in subsequent elections, then I may live long enough to see a change. As Hankster correctly points out, amending the Constitution is a daunting process - and I am getting older day by day!

Just how many elective offices are there that are voted on at the National Level. The rest are elected by the several States under their rules.

The Trump campaign strategy was to win electoral votes not the overall vote. If it had been a popular vote election their campaign strategy would have been different.

And for those who speak of 'fairness' I would hope that most here would realize that what is 'fair' is a perception that is not without perspective, 'fair' is a subjective concept.

It's especially subjective for Trump, who went on a Twitter tirade calling for the abolition of the EC when he (mistakenly) thought that Romney was going to win the popular vote and still lose to Obama in 2012.

Fish on...

Todd

So I was against it before I was for it. Does that really come as a surprise to you? I was wrong, just like lots of other things, but that's not the important part, the important part is that the EC obviously is very fair!

The democrats are predictably crying and stomping their wittle feet. Rioting and looting being their fall back option after an ass kicking like we haven't seen since post civil war reconstruction. Reconstruction was the democrats opportunity to create the KKK, not unlike their subversion of today the democrats cause hatred and violence as a way of dealing with their loss.

Way to go democrats! Keep up the "good" work while we make America great again.

Though it seems like we disagree on many things, I agree with this post.

Well in order to make their Trump the fascist myth come true, the rioters will have to keep going until even the moderates will be begging for martial law and then there will be nothing I can even do. All I wanted to do was gut Obamacare, kick a black guy out of public housing to replace him with a billionaire and work on a little real estate development project along the Mexican border but now I'm going to go down in History as some type of fascist dictator, thanks a lot Soros!

The EC has been in place since Day 1 of the US under the Constitution. This fact should be known by anyone who was awake in school government classes. My first memories of it were the 1960 election.

Anybody who runs for the office and doesn't understand the EC and plan for it in the campaign isn't smart enough to be President.

I don't have a problem with the electoral college...I think it's unnecessary, and undemocratic, even, but it barely affects anything, most the time.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, hates the Electoral College...

http://bgr.com/2016/11/09/trump-twitter-obama-election/

This is a selection of his batshit tweets the night of Obama's election over Mitt Romney when Trump was under the mistaken (huh, really?) impression that Romney had won the popular vote, but Obama was going to be the President on a "technicality"...said technicality being the Electoral College.




Believe it or not, those are actually the "more sane" of his tweets that night...he deleted a bunch of others that were even more full of vitriol and imbecility.

As we all know, it didn't matter in 2012...Obama won both the popular and electoral college votes going away...but it does show what most of us already know, that Trump has no moral compass, no code of ethics, and, most importantly, no clue about how the government works, or how/why the Electoral College exists.

Something tells me that he doesn't think it is a disaster for democracy this week.

Fish on...

Todd