New polling results released just weeks away from Election Day show a
majority of Americans want to replace the Electoral College with popular
vote system.
I remember being in 3rd grade and learning about the electoral college and thinking, "that's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard of". Still true to this day.
Large majority of voters want to change a system where the large majority of voters don't have as much say as a a minority of voters.
If the Democrats actually get the house and the senate this election, they should definitely looking into changing the voting system. It would be in their best interest.
Everyone saying this can't happen and stuff but we already have started the process. There is a set of several states that signed a pact that make it vote for the majority. Can't think of the name of it but we only need several more states (not all of them) to meet needed electoral votes to basically bypass the electrical college.
Ending the electoral college and changing to popular vote for the presidency is a very important goal and young people should commit to make it your life's work, because that's how long it will take to get a constitutional amendment done, and only if a sustained effort is made.
In the meantime we can also work toward other goals than can help:
Expand the size of the House of Representatives. The population is now way too big for the number of representatives we have, each representing 1/2 to 3/4 of a million people or more, when the founders envisioned a ratio of 1 per 30,000. Obviously we can't achieve that ratio, but there are several good proposals out there to make it more fair.
Statehood for Washington, DC and Puerto Rico (they deserve representation! and it would add 4 more senate seats).
Then there's our representation in the Senate. Our population is distributed very unevenly among the states which get two senators each. Each Wyoming senator represents less than 300 thousand people; Each California senator represents about 20 Million people (2017 figures). By 2040, 2/3 of Americans will be represented by 30 percent of the Senate, and only 9 states will be home to half the country's population [1]
What can be done about this? What about splitting the most densely populated states into 2 or 3 states? Highly unlikely to ever happen, but it's an idea. Then there's the idea of population redistribution. This is happening all the time anyway, but people could consciously choose to move into lower population states where their vote would count more (and cost of living is lower). With remote work much more acceptable these days, it should be easier for people with certain kinds of jobs to do, but it would also need investors choosing to start businesses in those states instead of always flocking to the high density states. There is a little bit of that happening but not much. Otherwise I don't know how this problem can be solved.
I think a bigger component in making this happen is instituting ranked choice voting. Political parties are private institutions that have amassed entirely too much power over our country. Sure, we can vote but electoral college or popular voting and we still are stuck with a candidate selected by one of two private institutions. These private entities are able to control elected officials who stray too far from the party line.
As long as large political parties control the candidates our vote holds less power.
We could also just make it irrelevant by expanding Congress radically. Adding back all the seats we missed when we froze the numbers in the 1940s. Even better, we were slipping on the ratio of representatives to people even back then so we could go back to the original ratio or something in between. That would be a max of around 10,000 representatives, but you would be far more familiar with your representative and they could do elections without the support of the economic elite or being rich.
That doesn't require an amendment and it functionally obliterates this tyranny of the minority.
63% != Large Majority.
If it did what would more be
70 = Really large majority
75 = Really really large majority
80 = Fricking huge majority
85 = Ludicrous majority
90 = BFM 9000
95 = Who said no
100 = Rigged
Yeah, but only (rural) land here has any say, so whether most Americans want to do away with the EC is irrelevant. Only Republicans in rural areas should get to dictate the future of this country.
Turns out even that level of rigging is not enough for the traitorous Republican scum; they might be planning on having just enough states refuse to call the election and throw it to the House so their scum there can install the insane and incompetent donnie in the White House.
Currently passed in 17 states for 209 electoral college votes, it doesn't take effect until there are 270 accounted for.
But do you really think the residents of a state like Oregon, or Washington, or California will just be OK with their electoral college votes being passed to a popular vote winner who is a Republican?
Especially if that person failed to win their state?