The biggest argument for keeping the Electoral College relies on a myth

I rather thought this myself, but this guy actually has some credentials.

The biggest argument for keeping the Electoral College relies on a myth

Quote :

Some critics claim that under direct election of the president, big states would select the president, no matter which candidate those living in the other states preferred. Thus, they argue, the Electoral College protects rural states against the dominance of large states and big cities.

This belief is a myth. In fact, the opposite is more likely — the big states can dominate the Electoral College.

Unfortunately, the argument used in this article has no merit.  PERCENTAGES of vote in each state are not the issue.

At issue is the NUMBER of voters in each state.

California, with 39,747,267 voters would see a lot more campaigning than Wyoming with 572,381.  To a politician, the United States would look like this:


Is this a bad thing?  Is there some need that the "small" states wouldn't have met if the "big" states called all the shots?  I can't think of any.  In fact, I daresay, if California and New York controlled the national elections we'd have a much more progressive and enlightened government.  Wyoming and the Dakotas have undue power to set a national agenda.  A conservative national agenda.

One thing to notice about this map is which states contibute most to the federal economy.


Taxation without representation, anyone?  One could argue that the states that support the federal government should have the most say in who that government is.

Of course there's also the issue of which states rely most on federal assistance:


The way this balances out favors the smaller states -- and the southern states (the Confederacy) -- enormously.  And that, my friend, is why the Electoral College still exists.


"Most states get more money back from the federal government than they pay out. But 10 states, shown below in red, give more than they receive."


Remove all the states that are below the 38th parallel, plus Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky.  Look what it would do to the balance of payments.
The Confederacy

Supreme Court to hear "faithless electors" case from 2016 election

Maggy Smith, from The Heritage Foundation, wrote:

Liberals in Congress have spent years peddling the false stories of Trump’s collusion with Russia, when in reality, the threat to elections was so much closer to home. It’s them.

The first resolution introduced in this Congress was H.R. 1, which would compromise the First Amendment, individual voter integrity, the principle of “federalism,” and other pillars of representative government.

While touted as “reform,” this bill would undermine your home state’s authority to regulate elections, make it easier to commit voter fraud, and cripple your state’s voter ID laws.

At the same time, there’s a concerted effort underway in liberal states to end the Electoral College – casting aside the wisdom of the Founding Fathers to ensure that big cities get to pick the President. Your rights are too valuable to be given away by these politicians. They want to trade the wisdom of the Constitution for electoral advantage.

Isn’t this exactly backward?  Doesn’t the Electoral College PREVENT big cities from choosing our nation’s leaders?

The additional problem is winner-take-all. The system America needs is ranked choice voting, and election by the overall popular vote. In that case, all of the votes come into play. No need to worry if you're a Democrat in Texas or a Republican in NYC, your vote gets into the count. With the current winner-take-all and electoral college systems in place, most people's votes just don't matter.

Yeah that’s what Hasan said too.

Calls to kill the Electoral College again.
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/06/931891674/as-presidency-hinges-on-a-handful-of-states-some-have-made-a-popular-vote-pact

It's outlived its usefulness, and now just fucks up elections.  Why shouldn't every vote count equally?  As this article points out, the Democrat in Texas and the Republican in Hawaii are just throwing away their vote.

I heard a thing on the radio yesterday, it was something like "Democrats have won the popular vote in every presidential election since 1988."  I don't remember the exact year.  But the point was, the electoral college has thrown the office to the loser -- always the Republican -- more than a few times.

I agree. Kick it to the kerb.