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What are the benefits to the US Electoral College system? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

83 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I'm a New Zealander and I have a pretty good idea on how the electoral college system works but it honestly sounds like something that can be easily corrupted and it feels like it renders the popular vote absolutely useless unless I'm totally missing something obvious?

So yeah if someone could explain to me what the benefits of such a system are, that would be awesome.

Edit - Thanks for the replies so far, already learning a lot!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This may sound cynical, but in my experience with it, 100 people are a lot easier to bribe than 230 million.

E: see, the people vote, and the EC are supposed to vote for what their state's people vote for. But, as free citizens, they're allowed to vote for who they want. So, we may get into situations, where the popular vote in a state was for A, but the EC vote was for B. The EC are supposed to represent their state, but should also be allowed to vote for the candidate they think is best (like the other citizens). IMO, it should be a point system. Each state gets the points of the EC count they currently have. The state's popular vote decides the candidate that gets the points of the state. The EC is disolved. Done. This allows the popular vote to win, while still maintaining the original reason for the EC (rural states have less people, but now have as much of a voting power as urban states, when compared to popular votes alone).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

They are mandated by state law to vote for the candidate that won the state. It is absolutely a ceremonial position.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have a source for the claim that it was originally intended to give more powers to rural states?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's what we learned in ELPSA class. I don't really want to go digging in my old textbooks, though :/