this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024

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1049

Large Majority of Americans Want to End Electoral College (www.commondreams.org)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know much about the ins and outs of politics, but wouldn't modifying the electoral college to be bound by popular vote help?

Or if it were abolished, couldn't the popular vote be set to act as one vote per section, with separation in a way that is fair.

Just spit balling here, but it doesn't seem like going pop vote means we would have to drown out less populated areas with densely populated areas.

Am I wrong? Am I on the right track?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"Drowning out" less populated areas with more populated areas is a non-issue that conservatives pretend is a bad thing because it's in their interest to do so. The less popular ideas being drowned out by the more popular ones is fundamentally how democracy is supposed to work. What they really want is to maintain the status quo where some people's votes are worth several times more than others just because they live in a less densely populated region. Land shouldn't vote. Borders shouldn't vote. Corporations shouldn't vote. PEOPLE ARE THE VOTERS.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago

I'm conflicted on this. On one hand, there are clear problems with the electoral college situation right now, but on the other hand, getting rid of it means that the tyranny of the majority will become a bigger problem. It's unclear to me which is worse or how we can fix the latter.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thing about the electoral collage is that it doesn't matter what the large majority wants.

[+] [email protected] -12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The problem with a simple majority is it allows large states to completely dominate less populated states.

We are a republic, kind of like how the UK is a union of (at least) four countries each with its own government. We are 50 states each with its own government and the constitutional right to make it's own laws about matters not specifically delegated to the federal government (see the abortion rights debate).

The founding fathers established the electoral college as a compromise between electing the president in a vote by Congress and a popular vote. I would take an amendment to the constitution to get rid of it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

All this went out the window when they capped the number of representatives in congress. That took away popular vote power. Montana doesn't need 2 senators and a rep. North Dakota doesn't need 2 senators and a rep. California is getting massively screwed on their representative count. That state alone should swing legislation based on reps alone. It would lay bare the tyranny of the minority.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The founding fathers established the electoral college as a compromise between electing the president in a vote by Congress and a popular vote. I would take an amendment to the constitution to get rid of it.

They established it as a way to launder slave votes into presidential elections, as stated explicitly by the man responsible, James madison:

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0065

There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.

The electoral college exists because southerners were spoiled bitches who wanted more power than they deserved, then they threw a tantrum when they lost anyway (the Civil War), now they keep threatening and whining if they can't keep their unfair advantage while gerrymandering to hell.

I'd be fine with the EC, if we also denied the electoral votes of states that don't follow the constitution or ratify all the amendments (Mississippi still refuses to ratify the 24th banning the poll tax).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thank you for that

The more I learn about the concessions made to the southern slave owners I wish the founders hadn't tried so hard to include them in the union. The north and the south were so different it seems like it would be as doomed to failure as jamming all the Balkan states into a single country.

Every time Texas threatens to secede and doesn't I wish we had the choice to vote them out so they could see just how badly they are not the hot shit they think they are.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Same, Texas is unique, they fought 2 wars of independence because their parent country started (or could theoretically start) restricting slavery.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

What, and end the control and power the establishment has over you? Good luck

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