Since this is an election year, I was curious to see how others felt about the electoral college. So are you for or against it? If you don't know how it works, this should help you out:

electoral college

Electoral College Pros:
The Electoral College is deeply rooted in federalist principles that founded our country. As a republic, we were not meant to have direct majority rule.

The electoral system forces candidates to campaign in all states, thus ensuring that smaller states are not ignored.

Direct voting could make the system even more confusing. With direct voting, close elections could lead to national recounts as opposed to limited state recounts.

Electoral College Cons:

Majority rule is denied through the indirect voting method of the Electoral College.

Smaller states get extra clout over larger states.

The Electoral College does not allow people to feel that they have elected a president. Therefore, the importance of voting is diminished.

 

With todays media, I don't think it is necessary for one running for office to campaigne in every state, they just need to purchase air time. I say use the popular vote.

 

I say Electoral College.

When making policy, the needs of the smaller states would be ignored because they wouldn't have much pull in a popular vote.

 

I have some valid observations, but these would likely lead to a flamefest. So I'll toss this one out because it's been mentioned already:

Smaller (meaning less-populous) states do need a say in things. Even if they are "flyover country" as some political wags call them.

 

popular vote.

bush is not my prez. he stole the seat from gore

 

get over it man that was 4 years ago. I say electoral college.

 

Ima go with electoral college. States are considered as individual entities and are treated as such as they each have their own economy and whatnot, state boundries cannot be ignored. By going by straight popular vote, you are allowing the bigger states to overpower the smaller states thus crushing their economy.

 

I find that most people I've met who want the popular vote to rule don't have much to back up their opinion other than that they hate Bush.

 

here, here on that last note...

up until opinion... the rest will incite a riot on this fourm.

 

It makes me wonder how opinions among that group would be if Gore won the most electoral votes and lost the popular vote.

The argument is academic anyway. The only people who think the system is broken are still obsessed about Gore "losing" the 2000 election... but "winning" the popular vote. Thus, Gore should have won in their minds.