Monday, September 15, 2008

If the Polls Hold True...

John McCain will win the popular vote and Barack Obama will win the Electoral College; this is the exact opposite of what happened in 2000.

If this happens, I wonder if Republicans will hypocritically complain about the Electoral College. I also wonder if Democrats will hypocritically say that the popular vote is meaningless.

I have been against the Electoral College for a long time - I actually hoped in 1992 that Ross Perot's presence in the election would have kept someone from getting 270 electoral votes and might have led to abolishing the electoral college. Sadly, it didn't happen and we are stuck with the system that really makes no sense anymore.

Whatever happens, its time to get rid of the electoral college. Then we can live in a system where every vote really does matter.

3 comments:

Karen M. Peterson said...

I disagree with you on the Electoral College, but I don't know if you want a philosophically religious debate here on your blog, so I won't get into the specifics of why I feel that way.

The fact is that the Founders intended for the States to choose the President and the Electoral College puts every State on an equal level. Yes, liberal California has more votes than conservative Idaho, but when you combine conservative Idaho with Utah, Wyoming, Montana, etc, then you've got a more even playing field. It was designed that way for a reason and it has generally worked for us so far. If this system allows Obama to take the White House despite losing the popular vote, I will be disappointed, but I will not call for an end to the system.

Karen M. Peterson said...

Oh, and have you looked into this whole "Obama is not a US citizen" thing? I'm sure it's not going to hold up, but some of it is pretty fascinating reading.

MDP said...

The Electoral College was designed at a time when average citizens were not considered informed enough (or maybe they really weren't informed enough) to vote for President - states would decide the President.

But we do not live in those days anymore. One might argue that the average citizen is still not informed enough (I read an article today where a citizen of Ohio was quoted as thinking McCain's running mate is from Canada), but we operate in a quasi-popular vote system anyway. The electors vote with the popular vote of the state. Why not just do away with the electors and let the popular vote decide? Instead of having every "state" be equal, every citizen's VOTE will be equal.