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

I am somewhat surprised that this debate is still simmering in this website after so many clear explanations have been given establishing the clear, legal necessity for the Electoral College system.

The first point is that we are not a democracy. Contrary to some stories, our country is not a democracy. The United States of America is a democratically elected Constitutional republic. As such, we indirectly vote for our representatives and government. We vote for electors in each state and based on those electors vote according to the rules governing the state's process of allocating electors. For most states, it is 'winner take all' in some the electors are apportioned. This process was devised to provide balance between the highly populated states and the less populated states. Without this balance, we would have a popular (majority rules) election and the presidential candidates would only campaign in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio and North Carolina and Virginia. These highly populated states would have an overwhelming influence on the outcome, while the other states would lack the population and draw to be involved or meaningful in the decision of who leads our government. For that reason, we are not a democracy.

No. It was put in place for good reasons that are still valid.

No. Without the Electoral College, candidates would spend all of their time and effort in the big cities. The East and West Coasts would be the centers of attention, along with a few big cities in the middle of the country. For the rest of us, it would be "The Hunger Games" come to real life. The big cities would get all of the money and support, and the majority of us in "fly-over country" would pay taxes at gunpoint and be starved of any benefits. The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they set up our Constitutional Republic. A system based on majority rule with no protections for the individual or the minority is mob rule in a coat and tie.

Regards,

Hugh Blanchard
MAJ, U.S. Army (Ret)

No it most certainly is not a good idea to get rid of the electoral college. The electoral college is the mechanism that the founders put into place to ensure that the small states get a voice in choosing our President. Without the EC, California, and Texas would choose most of our leaders.

For a long time I would have agreed with you that the Electoral college needed to go away, but then It was explained to me why it is in place. Places like LA and New York have a large concentration of people whereas states in the middle of the U.S have significantly smaller populations. If there was no electoral college, the candidates would simply have to campaign in the big cities and the rest of the country would not be heard.

Plenty of differing opinions, here is mine. Leave it alone. The system works. While it would be nice to imagine that my own particular vote counted, it would be ineffective as a Nation to vote that way, because to win, all you would need to do was campaign in the population dense areas, and boom, the dude in Louisiana, Arkansas, Rhode Island, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Nebraska, Wyoming etc don't have a say in the election, hence the Electoral Vote. There should be no way that the Electoral vote can differ from the Popular vote of the State it comes from, that I agree with. If the State wants to vote for an idiot, then that is who the Electoral votes should go to. And in my experience, we elect idiots on occasion.

Yes,the electoral vote is a democratic way to offset the general vote.

From a Civilian - I am impressed by the majority of these well educated and informed answers. It seems to me that the majority of people that want to abolish the Electoral College are those that live in large population centers that expected Hillary to win and were shocked to find Donald Trump as our nation's President. I also find it ironic that the Electoral College worked perfectly for the elections of 1994, 1996, 2008, and 2012 (President Clinton and President Obama) but not for 2016. Which has some how changed in constituency to be predominantly Republican. I think that it is clear that these voters simply decided that one candidate now represented their interests in this election more than the other.

Based on commentary that I've seen all over Social Media, online and televised media outlets, it seems as though the impetus to remove the Electoral College from our Constitution is a response that eliminates logical reason in favor of strong emotions and a visceral reaction to the Republican candidate. Hence the justifications for electing Hillary Clinton based on the fact that she won the popular vote and appeals to the Electorate to "vote their conscience" or force a non-vote of 269 Electoral College votes so that the House of Representatives would then elect the next President. Even though as many of you have pointed out, that is not how the system works or is even designed to work. If the Founders wanted the popular vote or members of Congress to elect the President of the US, that's what they would've built.

While I did not vote for either candidate, I personally believe that the Electoral College is a tool vital to the survival of the Republic and works exactly as intended. Changing it or removing it would not serve the Republic.

No, not ever. We don't want big cities to determine our politics.