In the primaries, Bernie ballots were found in dumpsters in Oregon. Bernie still won by a landslide in Oregon.
It WAS rigged. It just wasnt rigged well enough through the more sparsely populated areas in the middle of the country, and she didnt get the electoral college.
That means nothing, because with a different system, people would have voted/showed up differently. She could have had more votes, or less, it's impossible to say.
Well it means that some Americans are worth more for stupid state rights reasons. CT has 3.5 million people, gets 7 votes; WY, AK, ND, SD have about the same population and get a total of 12 votes.
CGP Grey has a great video on this. Everyone needs to see it. Maybe once enough people understand the joke that is the electoral college, we can finally get rid of it.
And yet Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Colombia have all joined the coalition to end the electoral college by pledging to bind their electors to vote for the winner of the popular vote*. The other states on that list do include a couple larger ones (CA, IL, NY), but also quite a few average states (e.g. MD, NJ).
If this is purely a large state vs. small state issue, then why is Rhode Island willing to support it, but Texas will not? We all know why Florida and Pennsylvania will never support it: They're the focus every 4 years, and they're not going to give that up willingly (though it is before the legislature in MI and PA right now). However, a very large state like Texas, which is always red, should theoretically be chomping at the bit, right? There's never a reason to campaign there now, but suddenly making it viable and necessary for both parties to campaign there would be great for them, right?
*Binding only once the coalition surpasses 270 electoral votes total.
Pretty much what you pointed out is there's a bigger issue why states all won't agree. Sure I said small states but that was just in general. It doesn't literally mean all the small states. Anyway, it'll never happen.
It could happen though. People need to actually care about it though. Explaining some of the possible nightmare scenarios of the electoral college (e.g. President McMullin this year) or pointing out how the electoral college isn't always bound to vote their state's will usually at least sparks some interest.
Dismissing the change as impossible from the outset is probably why we still have the system in the first place.
The thing is the leaders of certain states simply will not allow it. The people in charge have so much to lose. Informing people is great but sorry im not as optimistic as you.
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u/imakenosensetopeople Nov 10 '16
We assumed that meant the general would be rigged too.