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| Wednesday, August 10, 2005 |
| How long before we get rid of the Electoral College? |
A group called FairVote has published a report critiquing the Electoral College, showing how the battlefield is shrinking so fewer and fewer Americans decide who becomes President.
When will we get rid of this thing? I thought after 2004, when Kerry came within ~30,000 votes of winning Ohio and pulling a 2000 in reverse, that perhaps there would be some Republican support, but I haven't heard it. Perhaps it won't happen until both sides have actually suffered a popular victory, electoral loss.
It really doesn't make much sense. The argument that the EC encourages person-to-person campaigning really doesn't hold anymore, when so much of the focus is on the big swing states of Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Those states are still big enough that they need blanket tv ads, which is what would happen if we went to a strict popular vote.
I think the movement has to be coupled with a concerted improvement in the way the media covers elections. Perhaps, in addition to debates, have a series of programs centered around certain issues, where candidates have to submit written responses to questions. Or each candidate gets a 30 minute prime-time pre-produced spot, with no audience, to lay out his/her platform using charts, graphs, colleagues - basically however they want. |
posted by CB @ 9:07 AM   |
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