Monday's Electoral College results prove the institution is an utter joke

[portlander23]

Monday's Electoral College results prove the institution is an utter joke
Andrew Prokop
Vox

But that doesn’t mean the Electoral College system is sound. Instead, Monday’s shenanigans further spotlight the glaring weaknesses in our country’s bizarre, anachronistic Electoral College system that have long been evident.

The record number of defections for the modern era — there hasn’t been more than one faithless elector in any one election in the past century — proves that the Electoral College isn’t a system that can be relied on to accurately reflect the will of voters in the states. And yet it also isn’t a system where electors feel completely free to make up their own minds.

What we actually have is a system in which the vast majority of electors vote in accordance with state outcomes — except for essentially random defections by little-known, idiosyncratic people who happen to have won elector slots. And that is a system that’s badly vulnerable to a very serious crisis.

Indeed, the only thing rogue electors ended up accomplishing was to degrade one more of the American political norms that have been so damaged by the 2016 election.

[unblock]

1. i think idea of the electoral college being actual human beings jumped the shark when parties began.

i can see the idea of human being in the electoral college being a stopgap against a disastrous presidential candidate might have made sense before the advent of political parties, which for some reason our founders didn't foresee, or at least appreciate.

given political parties, it's hard to see electoral overturning the will of their party and their party's voters. moreover, the parties make sure that electors are largely chosen for their loyalty.


a completely separate issue is the allocation of electoral votes, which is a whole nother set of problems....

[Little Star]

2. The popular vote is the only thing that should count......

The Electoral College has got to go! Next time it may happen to your candidate. I wonder how many people even know what The Electoral College is & just why it was ever created in the first place. It's an antiquated system put in place to appease slave states. It is outdated and not needed any longer. We need to use the popular vote when electing our president. Give the power back to the people!


What is the Electoral College? https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html


10 reasons why the Electoral College is a problem: https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2012/10/10-reasons-why-electoral-college-problem



9 Things You May Not Know About the Electoral College: http://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-electoral-college

[Abq_Sarah]

5. It's not going away

You're never going to get 38 of the states to agree to hand all power to elect a President over to the 5 largest pop states. Never Going To Happen.

[Little Star]

6. One person, one vote & screw the states and their power grabs....

Why should they even have any power in electing our president? Popular vote is the only pure way to elect a president.

[Abq_Sarah]

7. Power grab?

You do understand we're a republic, right? A union of individual states? Smaller pop states aren't going to give up an ounce of power or influence.

[pbmus]

3. Trumpster agrees...

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[liberalhistorian]

4. Well, true, but I'm frankly having a hard time

understanding why anyone would have thought that it would actually do the right thing in this instance. Republican electors, and even a good many Dem ones, are overwhelmingly upper-crust privileged white male conformists. They are hardly the type to do anything other than rubber-stamp the status quo, especially one that maintains their privilege. They are more afraid of being seen as "troublemakers" than of actually doing the best thing for the nation.