Has the time come to abolish the Electoral College???

No, it needs to remain in place, if not, like others have pointed out, a small percentage of the country would basically rule the elections based on "their" political affiliations one way of the other, essentially rendering our election process all but dead.

No! It is needed now more than ever. This current election is one good reason why it is still valid. Take away the electoral college and you have New York, L.A., San Francisco and Chicago determining the results of all national elections. All this bruhaha now over it is just sour grapes by those on the left.

Negative. The US is a republic. Not a democracy..

Read up on the Electoral Collage. You'll see the founding fathers were so very wise. If only we today were so smart. We have gotten so soft and lazy and have become my way or the highway bunch of spoiled brats, that we will sell out this countery. Sometimes life doesn't go as you would like. If you were actually in the military, you would know and have lived with it.

No, our founding fathers knew that a popular vote would lead to tyranny. The places that are low in populations would never have a say in government. This is only the 5th time in our history that the popular vote did not coincide with the electoral vote. I think that is a good record.

NO. The problem is too may people are uneducated, or maybe they do understand it and know the few largely populated areas can control the nation. The founders of our country were very smart in this regard. As it is, every state has a say. If they want to get rid of the Electoral College, then we need to get rid of the Senate as well. Both represent equal representation. Did we act so childish when Obama got elected?

This is why EVERYONE K-12 and 13-16, should be required to take and pass a CIVICS & AMERICAN GOVERNMENT course! They should also understand the reasons why James Madison, studying the various political systems of the day, knew that BALANCE was needed.

He knew that concentrations of populations, could also overshadow the greater good, which is why you have to have a popular voting process in order to INFLUENCE the Electoral College vote. The popular vote remains important when the majority across the ENTIRE nation, and not just concentrated in a few population centers is how elections (at least national ones) are designed to be won! Getting both the majority of popular votes that also yields the majority of electoral votes as Reagan did was a mandate. When a figure (politician) wants to only use the popular vote, people can be left out is rural areas. The question is the few population centers elect leaving out those spread out then not everyone is FREE. (Note: I think in an earlier version of this post I may not have been clear, which is why I have edited for more clarity.)

People simply don't know, as Winston Churchill once remarked to a reporter when asked a question with his response being - "Sir, you don't know you own bloody history" and in this case for those asking to abolish the EC they don't know their own bloody history or why, beyond the popular "privileged gentry theory" so often spouted by those whose understanding our system is somewhere below whale poop on the ocean floor.

If one really studies the Founders, they were flawed men seeking to go beyond them to create "a more perfect union" by working as they knew they would have to do in order to overcome not only their own personal shortcomings, but those of their fellow patriots in order to actually achieve - "a more perfect union."

These words by Thomas Jefferson, a flawed man are a true today as they we some 240+ years ago:

- Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

- Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

- I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

Quotes at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_jefferson.html

If the LEFT is ever successful in eliminating the EC, those on the left will not have too long to wait until they begin to SCREAM they want it (the EC) back. At that point, it will be too late!!! At that point, we will not, as a nation, have either the moral or other appropriate high ground to stand one as it will be like the quick sand that is often tyranny sucking the life out of us in the "sound of silence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4)" when completely covered by the quick sand if ignorance.

Again, those who lack an understanding of history are bound to repeat it. We cannot allow educated or uneducated ignorance to prevail. Our goal is to know! If you have a PhD or a HS Diploma, as a citizen of this nation you (I) are charged with knowing and understanding why our system is designed the way it is.

We as current and former veterans have to remember our duty to stand firm to protect our nation from ALL ENEMIES - foreign and domestic. That even means the ignorance of our FELLOW citizens.

A little Lee Greenwood as a reminder - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH61hFsma24

Everyone in this thread gets it, not we have to help others get it!!!

No. The electoral college, if understood, is genius. It was designed to keep large states (Virginia at the time) from overwhelming small states (Rhode Island) in an election. If the popular vote decided elections, the candidates today would need only concentrate on five or six states and the hell with the others.

No. The Electoral College was set up as a firewall against democratic tyranny.

NO. It preserves the sovereignty of each state.