Is there not a better way to elect a President?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
May 15, 2020 8:33am CST
The Electoral College method of electing the President of the United States has long struck me as being utterly bizarre. It can lead - as we saw in 2016 - to the majority of electors not getting the candidate they wanted as the winner.
The really odd thing, surely, is that this is an election for the President of the whole country, so why is that not the overriding factor in electing him or her? The fairest way of making the decision would be every vote to be treated equally and for the State in which the elector lives to have absolutely no bearing on the issue. As things stand, an elector in a large swing state such as Florida has more influence than one in, say, Montana. How can this be right?
Another way of making the election fairer would be for no vote counting to be done until every elector had had a chance to vote, which means that the citizens of Hawaii would not know the result before they had had a chance to vote.
These reforms would bring the United States into line with other Western democracies. France, for example, elects its President (in a two-ballot process) on a one person, one vote basis. When the UK sent members to the European Parliament its votes (cast on a Thursday) were not counted until the polls closed across Europe, most countries of which vote on a Sunday.
What do you think?
3 people like this
3 responses
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
16 May 20
1. I hate the electoral college
2. want to see tiered voting!
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
17 May 20
@indexer you pick your first fav, and rank them. So people who want to vote for someone less popular (but dont want their vote to be worthless since 3rd parties cant win against the big 2 here atm), could then. If their first pic doesnt make it, they then counted with their second pic, etc
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
15 May 20
Winston Churchill once said that the chief argument against Democracy was to take a look at the average voter!
@marguicha (223133)
• Chile
15 May 20
In my country each personĀ“s vote counts in the same way. I have never been able to understand the way the US elects their president.
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
15 May 20
There are historical reasons based on the notion - emphasized at the beginning and retained ever since - that the United States is a union of semi-independent states that want to express their individuality.
@Namelesss (3365)
• United States
15 May 20
@marguicha Most of us Americans don't understand it either. But I do know this, America is a Federalist Republic. The last few decades of democratic insanity have almost erased that memory from the minds of America and China and other countries couldn't be happier.