The Red and Black

Originally posted by

Mike Mahan

The Electoral College prevents a candidate from winning the Presidency by simply winning in heavily populated urban areas. This means that candidates must make a much wider appeal than they would if they simply had to win the national popular vote.

Thank you for your explanation about why it was created, Mike, but you and I both know that the Electoral College is total bullshit. What would you call the presidential campaign process other than "simply winning in heavily populated urban areas?" States with small numbers of Electoral votes are completely ignored in the campaigning, because the candidates and their advisors know well that they can totally ignore Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Alaska, Kansas, and other midwest and northwest states, because the only places that really matter are both coasts, Texas, and the Northeast (from Michigan eastward).

The last two elections have shown us what a complete failure the Electoral College has become in this day and age. Perhaps when the only way to get from place to place was on horseback and it took a fortnight to get there, the Electoral College was a necessary measure to ensure that the needs of the people had been efficiently voiced. That is no longer the case, though. With the phone, electrical, TV, and broadband lines that now criss-cross the country, it would likely be possible to have a fully digital National election system that could take into account the true desires of the entire country, not just "battleground" areas.

If the purpose of the Electoral College was for candidates to "make a much wider appeal," then it would seem to me that an election in which a candidate won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote would be a complete travesty, and an indication that the system had outlived its usefulness. This isn't just some hypothetical situation...this actually happened, and a man who was rejected by almost half of the voting populace was awarded the presidency. Doesn't seem to me as the the Electoral College is doing anyone any favors if it defies the desires of the majority. All the Electoral College does is create voter apathy in places (like the very state we live in!) which have an overwhelming majority of one particular party. I bet many democrats in Georgia would be much more excited if they actually thought their vote might mean something.