In light of the Israeli elections, I began thinking about the American ones. And I wondered - how Democratic are American elections, really?
For instance, I'm from New York, right? New York is a liberal state. So if I wanted to vote for McCain this past election, my vote would have hardly counted at all. There would have been no point in it, you see? Because no matter who I voted for, New York as a whole was going to vote for Obama and that was that. Sure, they need my vote to know who one the popular election - but why is the popular vote not the one that counts? Surely that is more representative of what majority of the country wants? Why is the electoral college the system of choice? I'm asking because I'm actually curious. What benefits does it have? How is it really democratic? Why not just count everyone's votes and go with the majority there?
3 comments:
I think it has to do with the general balance of power between the national government and state government. There have been debates throughout history about which should retain the more power.
So, to utilize the popular vote would be to nullify ant influence that each state would have as an discrete entity.
Or, I have no idea what I'm talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College#Contemporary_conflict_over_the_Electoral_College
It doesn't...next question:)
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