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Melissa Seideman

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Direct popular vote should replace the Electoral College.

Please state your opinion here about this debate and respond to one other person.

Pro- Lindy and Miranda
Con- Claudia and Caitriona

Debate is on Thursday.

Topics: Electoral College Presidential Election elections
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  • richard valentine

    • 0
    Jan 2 2013: I strongly feel that the electoral college does not accurately represent the the nation, let alone the state. For example, the distribution of Electoral votes in the College tends to over-represent people in rural States because the Electors for each State is determined by the number of members it has in the House. It is nearly tyrannical that the outcome of a presidential election relies on the decisions of the Electors. The election of a presidential candidate should be solely based on the favor of the people, not the persons that represent said people. If we continue to do as we do, it is inevitable that the people will rebel against the system and devastating consequences will arise. We must repair the horrible structure of the system before more damage is dealt.

    • Susan Anthony

      • 0
      Jan 2 2013: Most Americans don't care whether their presidential candidate wins or loses in their state. . . they care whether he/she wins the White House. Voters want to know, that even if they were on the losing side, their vote actually was directly and equally counted and mattered to their candidate. Most Americans think it's wrong for the candidate with the most popular votes to lose. We don't allow this in any other election in our representative republic.

      In 2008, voter turnout in the then 15 battleground states averaged seven points higher than in the 35 non-battleground states.
      If presidential campaigns now did not ignore more than 200,000,000 of 300,000,000 Americans, one would reasonably expect that voter turnout would rise in 80% of the country that is currently ignored by presidential campaigns.

      In 2012, voter turnout was 11% higher in the battleground states than in the remainder of the country.

      The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

      Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.

      When the bill is enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.

      The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.

      NationalPopularVote

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