this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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472
For those who live outside the US this is how their elections work (programming.dev)
submitted 2 weeks ago by riskable to c/[email protected]
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Electoral College elects The President. No other type of election works like that.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0065

I paste this everywhere because the narrative of lies has been ubiquitous:

There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.

This was James Madison, ie the guy who came up with it. It exists to launder slave votes through their owners, nothing more.

We should have ended it after the civil war at least, definitely when we ended Jim Crow. It is an abomination and stain on our country's history.

If you are genuinely concerned about the power of low-population, rural states, that is absolutely a discussion we can have, though the Senate already massively favors rural states to a ludicrously disproportionate degree.

But what we have now is literally a system that rewards southern states that disenfranchise as many voters as they can in a sick continuation of the vile legacy of Jim Crow.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not the only thing that we should have changed over time. I disagree about Madison being "the guy" who came up with it, he only agreed with it due to the reasons at the time (which again changed, so it should have changed). Madison preferred a popular vote for President as the ideal vote method.

Honestly post Civil War should have called for a massive reconstruction of the country, but was fumbled badly for the easier route of just patching the wounds and hoping things would work themselves out. They never did.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

He supported the popular vote, right up until the 3/5 compromise.

He changed his mind during the convention of 1787,

Remember, before this the argument was that congress itself should elect the executive, or state legislatures. Madison (and Hamilton) pushed this as he didn't trust congress, but nor did he trust the people, but also different states had different voter eligibility laws (for instance, slaves, and later, women).

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay, but at the moment (3 am EST) Trump is also leading by 4% of the total votes. The electoral college may be fucked up, but the society is more fucked up.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

The states where he leads the most are the ones who are still angry we forced them to repeal Jim Crow.

160 years and they haven't changed an inch, and never will.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe they should advance to electoral university....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean, I understand why it exists but...fuuuuuck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Why does it exist?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Gotta trickle down that colonial imperialism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Eh. The local elections are pretty hard to find good information. Candidates and ballot measures.

It's hard to even find any kind of real debate outside of their written statements, which seem extremely misleading.

Edit - but at least the vote tallying makes sense

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Not to mention first-past-the-post and superpacs

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

My county made elected positions all non partisan. The primary election selects the top two winners, who then go to a runoff in November if no one candidate gets moee than 50% of the vote. It's solved most problems in local politics and elections since then have mostly selected level headed candidates. It's awesome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, our local ones are "nonpartisan" too, but that just means you have to get specific endorsements (and politics wonks can tell which endorsements are proxies for the local GOP and Dems).