Is the electoral College Outdated? Pros and Cons
Presently, we have the electoral college voting for the president of the US. These votes are determined by the popular vote of each state, but its a winner take all proposition whereby if one candidate gets 51% of the vote, the other 49% of the votes are basically ignored. Is that really fair?
Some things to consider when thinking about changing to the popular vote instead of using the electoral college the way it is used today, are these:
1. If we counted the popular vote, we would ensure that ever vote of citizens were counted.
2. So called swing states would not be as important in the grand scheme, because the electoral votes would not be counted and all states would get recognized as important to the candidates instead of the barrage of attention the swing states get now, ignoring the states that each candidate feels they have conquered for themselves.
3. A third party could emerge more easily if the popular votes were counted and it wasnt winner take all basically for Democrat or Republican, leaving out the lesser known parties.
4. Cynics may feel uncomfortable that there would be one clearing house for votes in Washington DC when incumbents were running, thinking it may be likely there would be tampering with numbers. To avoid this, each district should collect their voting numbers, report to their state which would in turn report to Washington, with audits running simultaneously.
5. Absentee ballots should be turned in one week before the day of voting so they could be counted in the day of national voting. They should be allowed to only those in the military or those who are infirmed.
6. Voter turn out may improve. Confirmed red states or blue states may not have the people in the minority parties coming out to vote in a winner take all electoral college voting scheme. Republicans in California may feel their ballot is worthless because all of the states electoral votes will certainly be going out to the Democrat party and think that voting is a waste of time. The same thing follows in the confirmed red states for Democrat voters.
An alternative to winner take all electoral votes that the parties would receive the proportional electoral votes that they received in popular vote. If the Democrat received 60% of the popular vote, they should receive 60% of the electoral votes. The other parties then would receive their comparable percentage of electoral votes to popular votes.
Any thoughts on this?
Presently, we have the electoral college voting for the president of the US. These votes are determined by the popular vote of each state, but its a winner take all proposition whereby if one candidate gets 51% of the vote, the other 49% of the votes are basically ignored. Is that really fair?
Some things to consider when thinking about changing to the popular vote instead of using the electoral college the way it is used today, are these:
1. If we counted the popular vote, we would ensure that ever vote of citizens were counted.
2. So called swing states would not be as important in the grand scheme, because the electoral votes would not be counted and all states would get recognized as important to the candidates instead of the barrage of attention the swing states get now, ignoring the states that each candidate feels they have conquered for themselves.
3. A third party could emerge more easily if the popular votes were counted and it wasnt winner take all basically for Democrat or Republican, leaving out the lesser known parties.
4. Cynics may feel uncomfortable that there would be one clearing house for votes in Washington DC when incumbents were running, thinking it may be likely there would be tampering with numbers. To avoid this, each district should collect their voting numbers, report to their state which would in turn report to Washington, with audits running simultaneously.
5. Absentee ballots should be turned in one week before the day of voting so they could be counted in the day of national voting. They should be allowed to only those in the military or those who are infirmed.
6. Voter turn out may improve. Confirmed red states or blue states may not have the people in the minority parties coming out to vote in a winner take all electoral college voting scheme. Republicans in California may feel their ballot is worthless because all of the states electoral votes will certainly be going out to the Democrat party and think that voting is a waste of time. The same thing follows in the confirmed red states for Democrat voters.
An alternative to winner take all electoral votes that the parties would receive the proportional electoral votes that they received in popular vote. If the Democrat received 60% of the popular vote, they should receive 60% of the electoral votes. The other parties then would receive their comparable percentage of electoral votes to popular votes.
Any thoughts on this?