Electoral College

[krosan]

Does anybody but me feel that the electoral college is kind of pointless? It give a small state with a low population as much power as a state with many more people.

 

[5stringJeff]

What it does is ensure that different states are still considered in the election of the Chief Executive. And not all states are given the same weight. California, for example, has over 50 votes in the Electoral College, while many states have only 3.

 

[Bern80]

The electroral college is set so that you get so many votes per a certain populatoin size. I don't know exactly what it is. I think it is designed so that candidates don't spend all their time focusing all their attention on the more popolous states.

The last election was an excellent example of this. If you look at the states that Gore won and the states that bush won. aside from Florida Gore got most of the urban areas while Bush got most of the rural.