Posted by
Tim Blessing on Monday, May 26, 2008 8:46:17 PM
The Electoral College.
The President is thought to be elected by the Public, but in practice he or she is elected by the members of the electoral college and reviewed by Congress.
There is no law that says the electors have to vote for their prefered candidate.
In 1976, there was an elector from Oregon or Washington State who voted for Reagan. Reagan ran in 1980 and 1984.
The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers as a way to give Americans a voice in choosing the President, but not direct election of him or her.
From what I read on the subject, this aspect of the Constitution was the least debated section of the Constitution.
If you intend to remove it from the Constitution that would take an amendment with 2/3s of both houses of Congress concurring and 38 state legislatures agreeing.
If you drop the winner take all aspect of this mechanism then you get convulsions like the democrats are going through now in picking Hillary and Barry.
The most dangerous effect of not having a winner take all approach from each state would have been 1968 when George Wallace pulled a substantial amount of vote into his column.
A check and balance mechanism that did not work in 1800, 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000.
If you had direct election of the President you would have to decide is a plurality or majority of the popular vote necessary.
In the current system, the southeast usually votes as a block (150 votes), California has power, as does several other states.
The Western States use to vote Republican at all times, but with immigration they are starting to shift.
During the cold war, you had a Republican lock on the White House.
Now, more and more states are coming into play, which is good for voters and is hard on candidates.
A disruptive process that works about 90% of the time.
Should we change it? I think big states in play get too much attention but again they are in play in election after election.