Abolish the electoral system? Now that's just kooky talk.
Like it or hate it, I think it's far more important than a straight popularity vote. And very necessary. Look at it this way...
No two places in the country are exactly alike, so rural voters have different and special needs than urban voters. For example, farming, industrial jobs, rural transportation, schools (since houses are so far apart and thus harder for kids to access quality education), and so on. These are the majority in states like Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Montana, Dakotas, etc...
But they can all simply be ignored if all the candidates have to do is to campaign in the major cities like New York, Chicago, and LA, in order to win the popularity vote. After all, those 3 cities alone easily represent 10% of the population.
So, the electoral system is there to assure that EVERYONE gets some attention time from the politicians, whether you're a white-collar businessman in metro LA or a poor farmer in Des Moines, Iowa.
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Like it or hate it, I think it's far more important than a straight popularity vote. And very necessary. Look at it this way...
No two places in the country are exactly alike, so rural voters have different and special needs than urban voters. For example, farming, industrial jobs, rural transportation, schools (since houses are so far apart and thus harder for kids to access quality education), and so on. These are the majority in states like Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Montana, Dakotas, etc...
But they can all simply be ignored if all the candidates have to do is to campaign in the major cities like New York, Chicago, and LA, in order to win the popularity vote. After all, those 3 cities alone easily represent 10% of the population.
So, the electoral system is there to assure that EVERYONE gets some attention time from the politicians, whether you're a white-collar businessman in metro LA or a poor farmer in Des Moines, Iowa.