The Electoral College is the longest, most detailed Section of all of the Constitution, and was hotly debated of all the Sections and Clauses. Being the other shorter, easily read parts are contested even today, it is not surprising this one is currently at the top of the list.
As Face Book, and most all of the other social and news site have been flooded with the how and why of the Electoral College, I will not delve into it, other than post this link; https://youtu.be/V6s7jB6-GoU
Most of the calls for scrapping the EC are sour grapes over who won, as witnessed by the calls for a straight up democratic, winner take all vote. See the link for why the Framers fought against it.
Of the calls for a revamp; the most popular is a proportional system. Sounds fair, right? But what system would you use?
A direct proportion of each state’s Electoral vote? Okay let’s take the big three, California, with 55, New York and Florida, each with 29.
Under the current system Hillary took of California and New York for a total of 84 Electoral votes to Trump’s total of 29 with Florida.
Now let’s award the votes based on the percentage of votes cast. In California, Hillary won 61.48% of the votes cast, or 34 Electoral votes. Trump won 32.97% of the votes cast, or 18 Electoral votes and Gary Johnson, 2 and Stine 1. Net gain for Trump is 18, with a net loss for Hillary of 21 Electoral votes.
In New York, She gets 17 votes, a net loss of 12, while Trump gains 11 Johnson gets 1.
In Florida Trumps gets 14 a loss of 15, Hillary gains 14 and Johnson 1
Among the Big Three, Hillary has a net loss of 19 Electoral votes.
Okay Proportional splits won’t get her to 270. So let’s go county by county, And split it that way
In California Hillary took 31 counties to Trump’s 25. Or 30 Electoral votes, while Trump earns 25.
In New York Trump won 48 counties to Hillary’s 14. Trump’s 19 Electoral votes to Hillary’s 7. Hillary for a net loss of 19.
Florida has 77 counties of which Trump won 68 or 88% which means 25 Electoral votes to Hillary’s 4.
Total change in the votes for the Big Three; Trump’s 59 to Hillary’s 41. Total loss for Hillary 43 Electoral votes.
A look at the nation’s votes as counties is telling. There are 3,141 counties, of which Trump won 3,084, or 98.2%, or 529 Electoral votes.
Okay I am going to point out the biggest flaw of a direct popular, person with highest number of votes wins. On the GOP side, there were 17 hats in the ring, the DNC had 6 and the Independents 2, for a total of 25.
“Ah but” you say, “the primaries would bring us back to two, plus those running as Independents.”
Not necessarily. Why have primaries, when it is winner takes all? Those losing their primary would run as an Independent, with a real chance to win. The voter, because the Electoral College no longer applies, is now an unbound voter. He or she can vote for someone and have a real hope the candidate will win. No more holding your nose to vote between bad and worse.
The problem of course is the winner will be the person with the most votes. “How is that a bad thing?” you ask. The winner could very possibly be elected with just 10% of the total vote.
Does anyone think that would be good for the country?