<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>The current Electoral College system encourages presidential candidates to ignore states where they are very likely to receive, or not, the electors from a winner take all electoral system. Voters also are not encouraged to vote in </div><div><div>states where their vote has very little chance of changing the winner take all electors outcome for their state for president. </div><div><br></div><div>Why vote for a democratic presidential candidate in Idaho, or why should the republican candidate for president bother to visit Idaho? The democratic candidate has close to zero chances of winning, and the republican candidate is nearly guaranteed all of Idaho's 4 electors. The same reasoning applied in California in </div><div>2016. H. Clinton did not need to focus on California's voters, at least as far as concern over losing electoral votes, nor did Trump expect to win California's electors. The state was not seriously in play in the 2016 presidential race.</div><div><br></div><div>We can keep the Electoral Collage and not change the US Constitution, yet have a system that more closely mirrors the democratic will of the people. There is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, for example, which while </div><div>technically not eliminating the Electoral College, in effect does. Thus it would likely be opposed in the courts. <a href="https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation">https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation</a></div><div>So this approach might not be politically practical. </div><div><br></div><div><font size="4">But all states could award their electors proportionally according to their popular vote. Maine and Nebraska already sometimes split their electors <font size="4">between two presidential candidates: <a href="https://www.fairvote.org/maine_nebraska">https://www.fairvote.org/maine_nebraska</a></font></font></div></div><div><br></div><div><div><font size="4">Consider this fact: The US Constitution does not mandate that the states award their electoral votes in a winner take all system.<br></font></div></div><div><br></div><div><div><a href="https://www.historycentral.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html">https://www.historycentral.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html</a><br></div><div><font size="4"></font><em>"One aspect of the electoral system that is not mandated in the constitution is the fact that the winner takes all the votes in the state"</em></div><div>----------------------------------------<br></div></div><div>Consider this article about the current winner take all electoral system in most states:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/winner-take-all_electoral_college_system_is_unconstitutional_say_suits_by_b">http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/winner-take-all_electoral_college_system_is_unconstitutional_say_suits_by_b</a></div><div><br></div><div><font size="4">Winner-take-all electoral college system is unconstitutional, say suits led by Boies</font></div><div><p class="gmail-byline">By <a title="View this author's information" href="http://www.abajournal.com/authors/4/"><font color="#0066cc">Debra Cassens Weiss</font></a></p><p class="gmail-dateline">Posted February 22, 2018</p><p><em>"A coalition of prominent law firms and professors has filed four federal lawsuits claiming the winner-take-all system of electoral college voting distorts presidential campaigns and violates the U.S. Constitution.<br></em></p><p><em>The Constitution provides that “electors” choose the president and vice president, while states determine how electors are selected, the suits explain. Forty-eight states and Washington, D.C., have winner-take-all systems for choosing electors in which the political party of the leading candidate selects every elector. The system magnifies votes by those who chose the winner and discards the votes of others."</em></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p>Here is an article about a proportional electoral college system:</p><div><font size="4">Integral Proportional System: Aligning Electoral Votes More Closely with State Popular Votes</font></div><div><font size="4"><font size="4"><br></font></font></div><div><font size="4"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/655882?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_content">https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/655882?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_content</a><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.historycentral.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html">https://www.historycentral.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4">---------------------------------------</font></div><div><font size="4">Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</font></div><p>.<br><br></p></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 11:14 AM <a href="mailto:rhayes@frontier.com">rhayes@frontier.com</a> <<a href="mailto:rhayes@frontier.com">rhayes@frontier.com</a>> wrote:</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid"><div><div class="gmail-m_-4300846384247341198ydpca6652d4yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div></div>
<div>The Electoral College was set up for the same reason that there are two senators from each state. That being to placate the South and convince them to join the union, and coincidently (not) to protect their abominable institution of slavery. In a different manner nothing has really changed. </div><div><br></div>
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