As I had this on the back burner others were writing about it. One of the best I found was at Gorges Grouse. He approaches from a different direction and has a lot of easy to understand numbers. I would recommend you check it out.
The cry to do away with the Electoral College is being heard again. The losers want to go to a popular vote instead of the current system. That still won’t solve their problem of losing. Keep in mind that if we go to a popular vote we should also demand a majority. A plurality won’t do it. In most of the current elections that would mean a second election with just the top two vote getters. As of the last count I could find Hillary only had 48% and Trump 47.1% of the popular vote. That means 4.9% of the country is not included in those counts.
How would that 4.9% vote? If you look at third place it is usually the Libertarian Party. How would those people vote? Would they bother to vote if they could not go third party? Libertarians tend to side with the Republicans on economic issues, the Democrats on moral issues and all over the map on other things. There are no guarantees.
Would people bother voting a second time? Would they change their minds? Would the loser still complain and demand a two out of three election?
Then consider that the campaigning would also change. Bribes and corruption in the big cities would get even more dramatic and destructive. Even more dead people would vote.
Do away with the Electoral College? Be careful what you wish for.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.