Monday, February 11, 2008

Count the votes and make them count

Not sure if many people would disagree that our electoral system is wacky. Even if you can excuse the baffling system of primaries and caucuses, it's very hard to continue to justify the Electoral College's system that can allow a person to be elected without receiving the most number of votes. It should not be POSSIBLE for that to happen. Another drawback to this system is that "sure thing" (win or loss) states do not get the attention of the candidates like the battleground states. From the website: "In 2004, candidates concentrated over two-thirds of their money and campaign visits to win votes in just five states; over 80% in nine states; and over 99% of their money in just 16 states."
There is a "movement" working its way through State Legislatures to change their all-or-nothing systems to one that gives the electoral votes of a state to the candidate who has received the largest number of votes nationwide. Read more about it at the banner/link at the top of the post.

Found via Raw Story

2 comments:

Michael Bains said...

I said back in '76, when I first heard the electoral college explained, that it may have made sense when instituted, but has NOT been rationally nor democratic since before the turn of the century; from 1899 to 1900!

Yup. 'Tis long past time for a Serious Constitutional Amendment bannin' the bugger.

Blueberry said...

Yeah! It's like some of the other crazy laws on the books.

...and while I'm at it, there should be early voting everywhere, so ALL folks have a chance to vote. We have it here in TX and it's great.