Why does the electoral college matter

The Electoral College makes American democracy more vulnerable to hackers, fraudsters and others who might seek to alter the results, explains mathematician Steven Heilman at USC Dornsife. Electoral College does not guarantee. He explains plurality voting — a method widely used across the U. If someone wins more than half the votes in the first round, that candidate is declared the winner. If not, the two candidates with the most first-round votes face off in a second round of voting.

Small-town issues and rural values will no longer be their concern. It would accurately value them by treating them equal to people who live in cities, rather than giving them an extra weighting. So rural and small-state areas are hardly hurting for national political representation.

Sure, candidates might end up spending less time stumping in the rural areas that currently happen to be lucky enough to fall within the borders of swing states, and more time in urban centers. But plenty of rural areas in non-swing states get totally ignored by the presidential candidates.

For decades, polls have shown that large majorities of Americans would prefer a popular vote system instead of the Electoral College. For instance, a September Gallup poll found that 61 percent of US adult respondents wanted to do away with it, and 38 percent wanted to keep it. Naturally, most Democrats want to get rid of it and most Republicans want to keep it, but most independents side with the abolishers.

But to ditch the Electoral College entirely, the US would have to pass a constitutional amendment passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate and approved by 38 states — or convene a constitutional convention which has never been done but would have to be called for by 34 states.

Either method is vanishingly unlikely, because each would require many small states to approve a change that would reduce their influence on the presidential outcome.

A state signing on to the compact agrees that it will pledge all its electors not to its state winner but to the victor in the national popular vote — but only if states controlling or more electoral votes have agreed to do the same.

If they do, and everything works as planned, then whoever wins the popular vote will necessarily win the electoral vote too. Your safe state vote might be wasted, or it might even be subverted by rogue electors. A version of this article was originally published in It has been updated for the election. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding.

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The Electoral College, explained. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Politicians, senators, congressmen and women are elected by large deep pocket corporations. Their votes are tallied, paid for by the biggest donations to his or her private or campaign funds.

Look through history how so many laws, constitutional rights have been altered and changed to favor big money politics. My opinion only, do not believe in government anymore, to corrupt. And It would be just easier if the popular vote one. Yes, the electoral voting system needs to change!! As stated in your article, there is no mandate that the electoral must vote with popular vote in every state. Currently there is so much corruption in our government, and interference from other countries, we need a more trusted system.

Meanwhile, all voters need to pay attention to who they are voting for locally, in the state, including judges, as local cases feed to the Supreme court. The Bilderbergs family and Rothschilds family tells the electoral college who to pick. This is also decided at the Bohemian grove in the California redwoods! Humans are ignorant! The electoral college not only makes the voting process unfair, but open the process up to be abused by one candidate, Donald Trump , for example, who only cares about the vote of those , and could care less about the millions others in the rest of the country….

I believe the electoral College should be abolished simply because the reason it was originally established, is no longer valid. What is the point of voting if the president is chosen by electoral college?

Seems like the people vote is useless. And how exactly does the electoral colleges give a voice to the rural population. Which one do you think is better? The popular vote should be the only vote that matters! This would include fair distribution of input across all socioeconomic classes. The electoral system is broken and does not always reflect public Iinput. Electoral votes should only count if there is a dead heat in public votes.

They just vote for the person the like the best. If it is all decided by the electoral college what is the point of wasting my time to vote.

It sounds like my vote really does not meen crap at all and I really see no point in voting anymore. It is supposed to be we the people afterall am I mistaken?

It is instead we the electoral college. The popular vote should rule. Standing in line for 3 hours to vote is pointless and my vote doesnt mean shit and will not vote anymore after this election. Constitution are antiquated relics of an era in U. Using the doctrines of Manifest Destiny and Divine Providence, the founders of the Constitution were opportunists and exploiters of the human condition.

It is a war nation with a war economy, whereby the U. Every citizen voter, taxpayer and c3 entity within the U.

Today, in 21st century America, the propaganda and cultural conditioning that each and every citizen is exposed to from birth to death prevents them from seeing what they are truly a part of vis-a-vis the world at large. Americans do not live in freedom. They only chase the illusion of freedom that the government has created for them to believe and worship at their own expense.

A true crime against all humanity. In my opinion, I think the electoral college should be abolished. The most important copy, though, gets sent to the president of the Senate, the current vice president. This is the copy that will be officially counted later. In 32 states and the District of Columbia, laws require electors to vote for the popular-vote winner. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld this arrangement in July. Electors almost always vote for the state winner anyway, because they generally are devoted to their political party.

A bit of an exception happened in when 10 electors tried to vote for other candidates. Those included people pledged to support Clinton who decided not to back her in a futile bid to get Republican electors to abandon Trump and choose someone else as president. Abdurrahman, the Minnesotan who wanted to vote for Sanders, was replaced as an elector.

Once the electoral votes are cast, they are sent to Congress, where both houses will convene on Jan.