tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post7347228475109286495..comments2023-09-06T07:13:58.715-07:00Comments on PLEKTIX: You can win the Electoral College with 22% of the voteBen Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15594823641514744644noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post-69318765484647736002017-02-06T23:09:29.701-08:002017-02-06T23:09:29.701-08:00great article!great article!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post-17425161495448858132017-01-03T10:48:05.367-08:002017-01-03T10:48:05.367-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15643838573706699338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post-47008579697254647322016-11-24T04:44:23.931-08:002016-11-24T04:44:23.931-08:00Not understanding the reasoning for the Electoral ...Not understanding the reasoning for the Electoral College is an inadequate basis for criticizing it. The men who designed it had seen in Europe what absolute majorities had done to minorities, and wished to avoid those failures. The Electoral College has not yet failed in that capacity.<br /><br />As for your assertion that the Electoral College gives power to the minority, I suggest that a more accurate characterization is that by over representing the smaller (by population) Sates, it diminishes without eliminating the significance of the popular vote – as was intended. I refer you to the recent Blue/Red delta and that it is less that the votes cast for the Libertarian candidate. This difference of 2,080,877 is swamped in comparison to the 5,805,666 of the Libertarian and Green candidates. Indeed, the Libertarian vote count was itself greater than the difference between the Democrat and the Republican. ( http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/index.html )<br /><br />As for being able to point to a single instance in which it has prevented a tyranny of the majority, I refer you to the Presidential Election held November 8, 2016. As you may be aware 60% of the States of the United States were carried by one candidate, while 40% were carried by the other. Without the protection provided by the Electoral College, the less than 2% popular vote difference between the top two candidates would be the only count that is meaningful. Are those 2,080,877 more than twice as important as the Libertarian 4,414,171? While considering that, keep in mind that the candidate with the larger vote count did not even get a majority of the votes cast.<br /><br />As the Electoral College includes the significance of the States in addition to the popular vote, it does lower the probability of an individual securing that office based on only the popular vote, as would have happened in this last election. It was not designed to, nor does it provide a check on the party that is in power. It’s purpose is to include the significance of all the States, and to not render the less populated ones irrelevant.<br /><br />You are correct that the Karl Popper piece is about winner-take-all versus proportional representation at the national level. Your closing sentence, "What we need to decide, as a country, is whether we support an electoral system that does not always align with the majority of votes." is a direct reference to proportional representation at the national level. You make it clear that you think it should be so. Popper shows why that is a mistake.<br /><br />In re your claim that the Electoral College’s potential to give power to candidates without majority support; as neither candidate received 50% of the votes cast, whatever the outcome may be by the vote in the Electoral College, the next president will not have received a majority of the votes cast. ( http://www.dictionary.com/browse/majority?s=t )John Sealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02719286656764533030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post-53300761537625375732016-11-23T20:20:36.018-08:002016-11-23T20:20:36.018-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.John Sealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02719286656764533030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post-62276986183656751562016-11-20T06:30:05.046-08:002016-11-20T06:30:05.046-08:00I don't think the Electoral College system doe...I don't think the Electoral College system does anything to prevent the tyranny of the majority. It sometimes gives power to the minority instead, but not in any systematic way that would prevent a tyrant--either majority or minority--from coming to power. Nor does it provide a check on the party that is in power.<br /><br />I don't even understand the logic of this argument. Could you explain exactly how the Electoral College system prevents tyranny of the majority, or point to a single instance in which it has done so? <br /><br />The Karl Popper piece is about winner-take-all versus proportional representation <i>at the national level</i>. It doesn't say anything about the Electoral College or its potential to give power to candidates without majority support.Ben Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15594823641514744644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8398797088391606752.post-48390665976019955762016-11-19T09:11:43.921-08:002016-11-19T09:11:43.921-08:00The winner take all (in contrast to proportional r...The winner take all (in contrast to proportional representation) elections of the overwhelming majority of the States, and the disproportional representation of voters from lightly populated States (in contrast to proportional representation) are both essential and valuable in dodging the tyranny of the majority that Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution was intended to prevent.<br /><br />For those interested in democracy, The Economist magazine invited the philosopher Karl Popper to write an article on democracy. Reading it may shed some light on otherwise occult democratic practices.<br /><br />http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/01/karl-popper-democracy<br /><br />John Sealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02719286656764533030noreply@blogger.com