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bettergetdave on 08 May 2015
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gergroy said:
bettergetdave said:

Because it serves as a winner take all system. I think there is only a 3-4 times in history that someone took the popular vote and didn't win the electoral college and it has been a difference of about 100K-500K votes. In the grand scheme of things it works pretty well. It is not at all like having a situation where someone wins 40% of the vote and the election. 60% of the country that could have voted for 2 other people combined definitely would be unhappy with the 3rd choice elected by only 40% of the country. Don't forget the system also protects smaller and larger states and cities making the candidates be more than just regional popular. You have to win a majority of the map and not just get all the votes in 5 largest states whose population greatly out weighs 15 other states.

Ok, but the electoral college is still weighted for population so big states do have more say... And it still creates a situation where the minority of people can elect the president versus a popular vote system... Which in your first post you indicated it was created to stop that from happening...

I was incorrect to say it was created for that purpose, I think the purpose was to give proper weight to the states versus big and small and balance them out. It is possible but highly rare to have what you say happen yes. But the big benefit of the electoral college is that it prevents that in "most" cases as well. Even when it doesn't the margin is very small as I pointed out. Again a straight popular vote like the original poster was suggesting would be a disaster and leave the door open for candidates to win that would not have the support of the majority of the country. Simple math says if you have 10 votes and the most votes wins between 3 candidates 4-3-3, the person with 4 wins even though 6 didn't even want that person. Worse case scenario with the electoral college is someone with 4.9 votes wins and the perons with 5.1 loses...and that again is very rare.