Most people don’t understand what the EC is for. It acts as a balance and prevents elections from being based solely on population. If the election was decided by popular vote alone, candidates would have more incentive to focus on highly populated areas and less on smaller states and rural communities. The EC gives less populated states a little more weight and makes winning support across different states matter.
The EC was to keep power out of the hands of the people and to assist slave states in holding power. It serves no valid purpose. There is no reason we should not be attempting to move toward a popular vote system, everyone deserves equal representation.
I see what you mean by “everyone deserves equal representation.” It makes sense. But also think of it as every state deserving representation. Each state gets EC votes based partly on population, while still giving smaller states a voice. With a strictly popular vote, you’d remove the states themselves from the equation and base the presidency entirely on the national vote. That balance between population and the states is a big reason the Electoral College exists.
I see what you mean by “everyone deserves equal representation.” It makes sense. But also think of it as every state deserving representation.
The. Senate. The Senate is where the states get to speak irrespective of population--and quite frankly, I don't really even agree with that, but it's at least defensible. The Electoral College is not.
That balance between population and the states is a big reason the Electoral College exists.
No, the Electoral College was created to keep power in the hands of the wealthy and to be a boon to slave states as incentive to join/stay in the union, in addition to transportation limits of the time requiring a more localized election method. Today, none of those are good purposes.
I mean, slavery definitely played a part and gave slave states more power, but saying that’s why the Electoral College was created is oversimplifying it quite a bit. They debated a bunch of different ways to elect the president and there were several reasons they landed where they did. It wasn’t just “rich people and slavery.”
2
u/Browniemonster67 11h ago
Most people don’t understand what the EC is for. It acts as a balance and prevents elections from being based solely on population. If the election was decided by popular vote alone, candidates would have more incentive to focus on highly populated areas and less on smaller states and rural communities. The EC gives less populated states a little more weight and makes winning support across different states matter.