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Historically the electoral college was a compromise that allowed for the counting of slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of taxation and voting without ha
by bwanab 2y ago
Historically the electoral college was a compromise that allowed for the counting of slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of taxation and voting without having them vote. Consider a state like South Carolina which at the time had about 50% of its population as black. How could the 3/5 of the 50% of the people get added to the total otherwise? Any method would be a hack, but this one had the benefit of being able to create a justification that it protected small states from being dominated by large states.
If you're American living in one of the majority of states that aren't "swing" states, I don't think you can escape the feeling when you vote for president that you're going through a kind of charade since the winner is going to be determined by some small number of voters in 6 states.
- 627467 2y ago> If you're American living in one of the majority of states that aren't "swing" states, I don't think you can escape the feeling when you vote for president that you're going through a kind of charade since the winner is going to be determined by some small number of voters in 6 states. I don't get the repeating of this perspective, didn't he win the popular vote this time? How did "small number of voters in 6 states" affect this reality? Isn't winning the electoral college but not the popular vote a statistical minor occurrence? People don't know how to lose.
- bwanab 2y agoI'm not making any statement about any particular election. This statement is just as true for a conservative voter in Massachusetts as it is for a liberal voter in Tennessee.
- xnx 2y ago> People don't know how to lose. Completely agree. So much "stop the steal", fake electors" and storm the capitol nonsense.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- maxerickson 2y agoMichigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would be enough electoral college votes to change the election result. The combined margin in those states is currently about 250,000 votes. So if a few hundred thousand people had decided the other way, the electoral college would have gone to Harris, without really changing the popular vote outcome. You may be imputing a position that the poster you replied to didn't take (they said voting in a state with predictable outcome feels like a charade, without saying anything about how they vote).