The Electoral College...Good or Bad?

[Rhuga]

Why should we vote for President, when it is the Electoral College that has the final say. A candidate can win the Presidency with the Electoral College and not have the popular vote.
I have participated in the local elections and I have seen how the folks that vote in the Electoral College in the Local Election and use their own vote and private agenda to pick who should run for President no matter what the voters say for that Party.

We should get rid of the Electoral College! It seems like a big conspiracy!

[reynolds357]

Worked for over 200 years.

[rcairflr]

The electorics are part of the original US Constitution and as such is not a big conspiracy. It would take an Amendment to the Constitution to get rid of the electorics. Just in case you've had your head in the sand all your life, the USA is "not" and never has been a true democracy.

[Caneman]

not sure the EC is working the way it was intended, but it is better than letting the majority of our population choose...

i kind of like the idea that they originally had where you had to be a property owner to vote... maybe for today if you don't pay taxes you can't vote!

[cutter]

I like that idea!! No way will people on the gravey train vote to get off of it. No skin in the game they don't care.

[rcairflr]

Here's why the 47% who don't pay taxes shouldn't vote.

[raven818]

Here's why the 47% who don't pay taxes shouldn't vote.

LMFAO...I don't do that much anymore..funny.

[armedandsafe]

The members of the Electorial College are required by law to vote their first vote as their electorate commands them. From then on, should there not be a decision, they are free to wheel and deal.

Pops

[Bobitis]

One has to ponder the 'what ifs' in this process.

Would we be a nation of users as we are today?

[armedandsafe]

One has to ponder the 'what ifs' in this process.

Would we be a nation of users as we are today?

Personally, I think we would have reached the "running out of other people's money" sooner, had we been organized from the beginning as a "pure" democracy. Just take a look at what the Puritans learned about commune-ism, and it took them only a year. "Pure" democracy always devolves into commune-ism. From there to tyranny.

Pops

[CampingJosh]

"Pure" democracy always devolves into commune-ism. From there to tyranny.

Pops

My wife had an economics professor who said frequently that a democracy will inevitably turn into a kleptocracy. The political class will steal dramatically from the masses, and return just enough of it to just enough of them to maintain power.

If we're not there yet, we're sure getting close. :mad::mad:

[graehaven]

Changing how the electoral college votes, with a constitutional amendment, or not, is like rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic.

We're done folks, done. The cake is baked.

[cjh7819]

If you get rid of the electoral college small states will have zero say in a presidential election.
The president will be elected by Heavily populated states such as California and New York. This bozo we have now is the worst ever, could you imagine what would happen if those very liberal elitist idiots had their way and we got one like this every 8 years. Put it this way without the electoral college we would have had a run of clinton, gore, and then obama. Think about what we would look like if that had happened. I was no Bush lover either he did a lot of dumb things but man gore would have had us neutered long before and then throw obama on top of that.

[user]

It would be good if it worked. As designed, the idea was that local folks would get together and select someone they thought had sense enough to help select the president. There was no concept that the average person would know enough about the people who might be candidates, or even what the issues really were. (And, at least since Walter Cronkite retired, I'm pretty sure that's still true, even with the advent of mass media.) Instead, at least in Virginia, we don't even know who our electors are. I was thinking of trying to run for the office of elector, and then filing suit in Federal District Court when they tell me I can't. The party officials select the electors, who never even really get to voice their individual votes, and the people vote for the presidential candidate they like. (I still think Trump has the most interesting hair.) Whichever candidate wins, all his electoral votes go to his election automatically. If it's going to be a popular election (the main reason we've had so many really bad presidents beginning with Lincoln, in my opinion), why bother with state by state tabulation at all, much less an electoral college? Being a Constitutional Fundamentalist, though, I'd really prefer to see the electoral college do its job. It is not a democratic institution, and it is not designed to be. The average WalMart shopper is not competent to choose his president, never had been, nor will he ever be. Anyone who can stir up the masses with hogwash speeches or undefined, vague promises of "change" can be president. We should be picking the wisest and most knowledgeable people we can find to pick the president for us.

[rcairflr]

We should be picking the wisest and most knowledgeable people we can find to pick the president for us.

So I'd like to know who these "wisest" people are and who is going to decide that they are the wisest? Also at the end of the day (or the end of the election), what does it matter who votes, since the ones we are voting for are almost never the right people for the job anyway.

It seems like every election, we are voting for the lesser of two evils.

Oh well, I guess we can just hope for some more "hope and change".

[raven818]

Odd, nobody I talk to admits voting for obama.

[rcairflr]

Odd, nobody I talk to admits voting for obama.

They may not admit to it, but the facts are that 49% of men and 56% of women voted for him. If I had been dumb enough to vote for him, I wouldn't admit to it either.

[Nighthawk]

In the early elections didn't the person with most votes get to be president
and runner up was vice president. If so then McCain would be Veep.:rolleyes:

[Old Grump]

not sure the EC is working the way it was intended, but it is better than letting the majority of our population choose...

i kind of like the idea that they originally had where you had to be a property owner to vote... maybe for today if you don't pay taxes you can't vote!

I like that idea!! No way will people on the gravey train vote to get off of it. No skin in the game they don't care.

Here's why the 47% who don't pay taxes shouldn't vote.

So those of us who served our country in the military, volunteered on crisis hotlines and with the boy scouts, who raised families who went on to productive lives without becoming a ward of the state or a client of the judicial system but who now are old, retired and no longer make enough money to pay an income tax should be deprived of the vote they worked so hard to earn. Bite Me!

[Double D]

Im with ya there grump. The IDIOTS that voted for obama are going to lie and say they didnt so not to face ridicule. They make me sick. Flippin liberal whimps. Go hide in the closet you country destroyers. Vote me in this time around and I will put one million troops on OUR borders and give the orders to shoot anything that flippin moves. I will repeal every single liberal piece of legislation even if it just sounds liberal. I would turn washington upside down and have half of them criminals thrown in jail where they belong. They make me sick.

[Nighthawk]

Those living on public dole should not vote. When they get a job and/or pay
their on way they can vote.
Those on retirement have paid their dues and thus they are paying their
on way.
Sometimes I think only vets (ie people who have offered their all) should be allowed to vote.
Most of us have never risked our lives for this country. For those of you that have, I thank you.

[rcairflr]

Sometimes I think only vets (ie people who have offered their all) should be allowed to vote.
.


Sorry, but that is just plain ridiculous.

[cutter]

I have never considered people who have been in military or worked all thier lives and on Social Security to be on the "System" Those people have put money in SS all thier working lives! BAD on people who cosider SS an entitlment or welfare because it is not!!! The welfare is people that won't work! Old Grump thank you for your service and please do not consider yourself as taking an entitialment (sp) and have earned the right to vote. The people that have never worked and just used the system are who I was refering to.

[armedandsafe]

Do we have the United States of America?

Or, should we change that to the United People of America?

Simple question.

Pops

[Old Grump]

I have never considered people who have been in military or worked all thier lives and on Social Security to be on the "System" Those people have put money in SS all thier working lives! BAD on people who cosider SS an entitlment or welfare because it is not!!! The welfare is people that won't work! Old Grump thank you for your service and please do not consider yourself as taking an entitialment (sp) and have earned the right to vote. The people that have never worked and just used the system are who I was refering to.
It was your choice of words, I just had this conversation a couple of months ago with a 19 year old gun enthusiast from the Czech Republic who used the same exact phrase. If you were so poor that you didn't pay income tax you should not be able to vote. We used to like each other. Now he stays the hell out of my way. It is possible I might have been a little rude crude and undiplomatic.

His back tracking response was well maybe if people in my case had an income drop but we had been eligible voters we could have a 20 year exemption from the rule. That went over like a lead balloon filled with pig piss and turkey ****.

You may have figured by now I am a little touchy on the subject. Especially since I was retired due to disability not age and I had never planned to be retired. I liked my work and my volunteer work and I miss them badly.

And I never miss an election.

[millwright]

Why should we vote for President, when it is the Electoral College that has the final say. A candidate can win the Presidency with the Electoral College and not have the popular vote.
I have participated in the local elections and I have seen how the folks that vote in the Electoral College in the Local Election and use their own vote and private agenda to pick who should run for President no matter what the voters say for that Party.

We should get rid of the Electoral College! It seems like a big conspiracy!

[bold added]

Given the current reality of multiple avenues of voter fraud and manipulation, you might want to reconsider that viewpoint !

Our founding fathers faced these same issues and created legislative tools to combat abuses they were already aware of ! Not too much has changed ! The "electoral college" was one way to mitigate the influence of a large scale "populist movement" generated by '"purchased votes", (a common practice of the time !) to favor the blished land owners/business holder minority. >MW