Understanding The Electoral College Debate | ACE
ace-usa.org
During American presidential elections, news coverage focuses on the “270 to win” count rather than the actual majority of individual votes that candidates

The Electoral College is a deeply debated aspect of U.S. presidential elections. Is it an outdated system that unfairly benefits small states, or does it still provide balance in elections?

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
    41·
    24 days ago

    Arguments in Favor of the Electoral College

    The Electoral College ensures that all parts of the country are represented in presidential elections, especially rural areas that might otherwise be overshadowed by cities.

    This is not an argument in favor of it. It’s a flaw. Low population states should not have more of a say per voter than high population states just because they are rural. That makes no sense whatsoever. Land doesn’t vote. People do. It doesn’t matter if a voter is in a rural area or a city. Every vote should count equally.

    As it stood for the 2016 election, Wyoming got three electoral votes for its ~586,107 voters while California got 55 votes for its ~39,144,818 voters. That’s 1 vote per 195,369 voters in Wyoming versus 1 voter per 711,724 voters in California. It is nonsensical that a vote in Wyoming carries 3.6 times the weight of a Californian’s vote.

    • abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us
      1·
      21 days ago

      In fact, the main reason for the Electoral College was slavery. It’s another holdover from a past that should have been long ago discarded.

      The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president, one that could leverage the three-fifths compromise
      With about 93 percent of the country’s slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the South’s congressional delegation by 42 percent.

      https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/electoral-college-racist-origins/601918/ (or https://archive.is/YnSkW )