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>The electoral college is designed to protect the country from manifestly unqualified presidents. Well, it doesn't do that in practice. The electoral college w

>The electoral college is designed to protect the country from manifestly unqualified presidents. Well, it doesn't do that in practice. The electoral college which goes against the will of the voters will quickly become the last electoral college. As it's politically untenable for the electoral college to do anything but heed the will of the voters, it's vestigial. All it does is get in the way of a democratic election.

v64 10y ago
> All it does is get in the way of a democratic election. The Electoral College system enables smaller states to have a fairer influence on the election. If the election were a straight popular vote, the candidates would consolidate their campaigning to only major population centers, leaving a large portion of the country behind.
- lisper 10y ago
  They might leave a large portion of the geography of the country behind, but they wouldn't leave a large portion of the people behind, which is what happens now. I live in California, and presidential candidates hardly ever campaign here despite the fact that we are one of the largest states in both size and population.
_kst_ 10y ago
Depends on what you mean by "goes against the will of the voters". There have been close elections where one candidate won the popular vote and the other won the electoral vote. That hasn't led to the electoral college being abolished. If you're talking about faithless electors, they have so far never affected the outcome of an election. If they did, I'm sure the calls for reform would become even louder than they are now. If the electors were intended to be able to exercise their own judgement, it hasn't really worked that way in practice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector
- macintux 10y ago
  I found a discussion of the topic in the Federalist papers this year because it seemed it might be relevant. Don't have the citation handy but they were absolutely intended to exercise their own judgment in the event of a patently unqualified candidate.
  - inimino 10y ago
    It is interesting to speculate what would happen if that occurred in this election.
macintux 10y ago
I think this year of all elections the need for level-headed electors would be obvious. Just because it's never happened doesn't mean it won't (or shouldn't). Sadly I think the day is approaching when we may well be grateful there's a way to stop a demagogue from taking power.

v64 10y ago

> All it does is get in the way of a democratic election. The Electoral College system enables smaller states to have a fairer influence on the election. If the election were a straight popular vote, the candidates would consolidate their campaigning to only major population centers, leaving a large portion of the country behind.

lisper 10y ago
They might leave a large portion of the geography of the country behind, but they wouldn't leave a large portion of the people behind, which is what happens now. I live in California, and presidential candidates hardly ever campaign here despite the fact that we are one of the largest states in both size and population.

_kst_ 10y ago

Depends on what you mean by "goes against the will of the voters". There have been close elections where one candidate won the popular vote and the other won the electoral vote. That hasn't led to the electoral college being abolished. If you're talking about faithless electors, they have so far never affected the outcome of an election. If they did, I'm sure the calls for reform would become even louder than they are now. If the electors were intended to be able to exercise their own judgement, it hasn't really worked that way in practice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector

macintux 10y ago
I found a discussion of the topic in the Federalist papers this year because it seemed it might be relevant. Don't have the citation handy but they were absolutely intended to exercise their own judgment in the event of a patently unqualified candidate.
- inimino 10y ago
  It is interesting to speculate what would happen if that occurred in this election.

macintux 10y ago

I think this year of all elections the need for level-headed electors would be obvious. Just because it's never happened doesn't mean it won't (or shouldn't). Sadly I think the day is approaching when we may well be grateful there's a way to stop a demagogue from taking power.