The Electoral College

[Trex]

Will somebody please clarify the reason the electoral college exists? From my perspective thus far, it elects representatives based on opinions of different population densities, which makes no sense to me.

[larcain]

The electoral college exists so that lesser populated stats still have some voice in the presidential election. The vast numbers of stats such as ca. or ny are somewhat compensated for by having larger numbers of electoral votes, but not nearly the ratio of that there raw population would warrant.

[Moniker]

It was originally used as a tool to keep the working class from "screwing up" an election, hence they have electors, and the popular vote means jack.

Ah, democracy!

[AGT-WildBillGates]

Why would a president come to my home state Minnesota if it was only population? They wouldnt come to Minnesota or any other "fly over" state because they simply can get more votes in the big 5 NY CA TX FL IL.

[Trex]

so why is it still in place today? this is retarded. re-elect gore in 2004.

[othell]

Originally posted by Trex
so why is it still in place today? this is retarded. re-elect gore in 2004.

And now we know the real reason the question was asked.....

WBG answered your question though.

[CountBubba]

I remember back when i took American History in high school, i learned the reason for the electoral college's existence was that the founding fathers did not trust the american people.

[mst3kld]

the electoral college was created as a check on the ppl. The founders of the constitution felt that most ppl were too dumb to vote and felt that this way would be an acceptable check on the people for most elections. When you vote for some1 running in the Senate (i think) and one other election the electoral college it not used (i think). But it was craeted as a check on the ppl. ppl r dumb and thats why they shouldnt vote. Its based on your pop, more ppl u have more electoral college votes u get. canadates pick certain ppl to be their electoral college resp (or voters) if the canidate wins the pop vote in that sate then their electoral college reps get to vote for which ever canidate they chose (yes, thye could vote against that person if they so chose, that happend in one pres election bc they wanted to maintain George Washingtons unanimous election thingy)

[mst3kld]

gores not running and he acctually won florida. he got more popular votes in that state. They did a manually recount a few monts later and learned that, go figure, Georges bro is gov of that state, wtfs his name? jeb or something?