* <<HAH.0861>> Electoral College
>TACKER:  Anonymous (Anonymous)
>SUBJECT: .. Fixing the Electoral College
>DATE:    17-Oct-17 15:20:45
>
>Someone tell me why replacing the electoral college with a national
popular
>vote is a good idea, and how the tyrrany of the majority will be
averted.
>
>Have you seen how the masses act? They're insane as a group,
completely
>insane.


The current electoral college system does nothing to avert
federal-level tyranny of the majority because it _creates_ much
larger tyrrany of the majority at the state level.

Republicans in Californa and Democrats in Idaho quite literally have
their votes thrown away; they don't count in total election results.
This causes voter turnout problems as red voters in blue states throw
up their hands and say "oh, what's the point of voting? I live in a
blue state, my vote doesn't matter." So the majority party in any
given state receives disproportionate representation when the
disenfranchised minority voters opt-out of elections that they think
they have no influence in.

On the other hand, you also get an apathy of the majority problem
under the electoral college. Democratic voters in Pennsylvania say
"ah, I don't have to vote this year because this state always goes
Democratic" which, in elections where the candidate is especially
enervating (I'm talking about you, Hillary), you end-up with a
disproportionate representation of the slightly more motivated
minority party.

In both of these scenarios, you get depressed voter turnout and
distorted election results. How many Americans would actually have
preferred Trump over Hillary? We'll never know for sure, because the
largest share of voters chose the "Whatever" ticket, and I believe
quite strongly that the low voter turnout in the US is due in no
small part to the discouraging effects of an electoral college
system.

What minority are you concerned about protecting with the electoral
college? Rural voters? What about the minorities within those
minorities? The liberals in Arizona and the conservatives in New York
-- how does the electoral college serve them?

The biggest democratic issue we have in the US is the lack of voter
engagement. People expect and want a direct-election system for the
presidency. If one-person-one-vote gets more people into the ballot
boxes (and I think it will), then it's absolutely worth abandoning
the electoral college for that effect alone.

You're right; the masses are completely insane. Forty-five percent of
the voters not showing-up at all is insanity.

--
Excerpted from:

PUBLIC NOTES (H)
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©2017 Adam C. Moore (LÆMEUR) <[email protected]>