In all this hoo-haw about the Electoral College, does anybody even care that the EC itself is a fundamentally anti-democratic institution? If you look into its history, you'll discover that it's a holdover from the eighteenth century, when the electoral system was controlled by aristocrats who believed it was dangerous to let "the mob" elect a President directly.
But let's set that aside and look at how the EC system operates in the world of today. It's still pretty devious, actually.
Consider:
► If some of these pro-Obama electoral college predictions turn out to be correct (example: Obama 332 to Romney 206), it would suggest that roughly 3 Americans voted for Obama to every 2 who voted for Romney. But that would be wildly incorrect. The EC is therefore a very poor measurement of actual support for each of the candidates.
► The EC's winner-takes-all system has resulted in candidates from both major parties spending nearly all their campaign time in the swing states and ignoring everyone else. If voters are supposed to decide based on knowledge of the candidates, how can it be a good thing that those candidates are required to give much more of their time to some voters than others?
► The practical effect of the EC system is that votes for the losing candidate are not even counted. So in Washington State, votes for Romney don't matter. In Texas, votes for Obama don't matter. Again: How is that democratic?
► I've heard Jay Inslee and other Democrats say (in reference to the proposed I-1185 "supermajority" requirement for raising taxes) that it's WRONG because it effectively gives anti-tax legislators more voting power than pro-tax legislators. I agree with Inslee on that one: Every person should have one vote. So what about those Romney voters in Washington and Obama voters in Texas? Shouldn't they have votes too? Yet, in the final count, they don't even get half a vote, like pro-tax legislators. They get ZERO votes.
Last, and definitely worst . . .
► Some 540,000 more Americans voted for Al Gore than for GW Bush in 2000, yet Bush won the election. That has only happened two other times in history, the last time being over a century ago.
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West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog
