Comment on Majority of Americans continue to favor moving away from Electoral College
PizzaMan@lemmy.world 1 year agoWhy does that matter? The people want a better electoral system, one that treats all votes equally.
“Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the States, or to the People.” -10th Amendment to the United States Constitution
Restrict the federal government’s power to only those powers explicitly delegated to them by the Constitution and I’d be ok with eliminating the Electoral College.
Why would that be relevant to switching to a voting system that produces winners that more accurately reflects the will of the people?
Because the will of the people in your definition is the will of a handful of cities and our country is too big for that.
Because the will of the people in your definition is the will of a handful of cities
No it’s not. A popular vote is a vote that reflects what the majority want. It has nothing to do with the location of the voter. We should not have the weight of our votes be effected by where we live, like we currently have with the electoral college. My vote should count the same way as anybody else’s, and so should yours.
Ideally the presidency and all other offices would be handled with STAR or approval voting, as they do not produce spoiler effects, weights by voter location, and help reduce extremist candidates.
It’s literally in the Constitution.
And it needs to change because the current system is fundamentally flawed. Our current system weights a voter’s voice by where they live, ignores huge swaths of people, has a spoiler effect, and does nothing to stop extremist candidates.
Slabs of stone don’t have will. People have.
It was designed to be unequal on purpose. The electoral is what keeps us from being ruled by the masses. It should not change.
So instead we get minority rule. Soooooo much better when the small number of loonies get to derail a functional government with a temper tantrum that 'the masses' want.
It's a badly designed system, and claiming it's like this on purpose doesn't negate how bad the system is. Also, we should not be chained to ideas that came around 250 years ago when other people have improved on the idea and made it less shitty.
Not at all. We have rule by the states.
The system is fine. It allows all states to have some say in the process.
Who gives a fuck about the states? States are just containers for people, and an excuse that the minority loves to use to explain how they get to rule over majority.
The electoral college is an undemocratic and broken system that makes my vote in a small state worth more than your vote in a bigger state.
A vote is a vote, and only losers need to remove the vote from the masses to be able to win. It's literally the only reason there's been a Republican president since H.W., and it's no surprise they're desperate to keep around the undemocratic voting method that allows them to steal elections they didn't win.
We are ruled by the states.
Lines on map can’t rule. Only people can.
It was designed to be unequal on purpose
What a convincing argument of its continued existence.
The electoral is what keeps us from being ruled by the masses.
It doesn’t do that, all it does is give people in swing states a bigger voice than anybody else, which is a terrible thing for our country.
Everybody should have a voice, instead it’s just a handful of people in a small set of states.
Doesn’t sound like you’re a conservative or believe in a republic.
A popular vote would mean the costal areas would have the largest vote and rural areas would get ignored.
It would quickly lead to a breakup up of the union.
Doesn’t sound like you’re a conservative
I’m not.
or believe in a republic.
I do. But ours is in need of reform to make it a better republic that more accurately reflects the will of the people.
A popular vote would mean the costal areas would have the largest vote and rural areas would get ignored.
That’s already what happens under the electoral college.
And every single other electected position in government goes by what is essentially a popular vote, if this was such a problem, all other positions would also be electoral college.
It would quickly lead to a breakup up of the union.
The U.S. is the only country that uses an electoral college. All other countries that exist, and are democratic republics use a popular vote and they’re just fine.
If a popular vote for presidency would cause the destruction of this country, why hasn’t popular vote for all other positions done so already? It’s because this is just fearmongering based on zero evidence. Actually it’s worse, because there is plenty of evidence it wouldn’t do this because of the aforementioned other countries that use popular vote.
We have the senate, which is needed to pass any law and gives equal representation to the states. We have the supreme court, which can strike down any law as unconstitutional. We have plenty of checks on mob rule without disenfranchising a gigantic swath of voters.
Then why don’t we institute the “Wyoming Rule?” It’s not “rule by the masses” but much more representative of what the population wants.
Or why don’t we just keep the system that works and has kept the country running. Why change something when it works as designed ?
Why change something when it works as designed ?
This argument could unironically have been used to support the continued use of gas chambers in Nazi Germany.
Just because something is “working” as designed doesn’t mean we should keep using it. If the design is terrible then it needs replaced.
Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 1 year ago
It matters which people want it. Certainly, if the sample was all in Kansas it would be different than if they were in New York.
PizzaMan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Where people live shouldn’t effect their voice in government.
Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I’m sure those peo0le in the electoral college’s area of influence agree with you…or do they?
PizzaMan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The whole point is that the electoral college is a bad way of determining agreement.
All votes should be equal.
blazera@kbin.social 1 year ago
Ah, only certain people matter