Was the Electoral College vote a good thing or bad thing in this recent election?

[kentuck]

If there had been no Electoral College, could Trump have succeeded in arguing that the popular vote was rigged?

Since he also lost the Electoral College vote, did that make it more difficult to steal?

Almost everyone here has come out against the Electoral College, but this time, it may have helped the Democrats?

Has it changed anyone's mind?

[First Speaker]

1. It's always a bad thing...

...and I would include 2004. If Kerry had squeaked thru in Ohio, but lost the popular vote by three million, it would have had no good effect on the country. As for 2020...if Biden had won by seven million popular votes--as of course he did--I don't see how Trump could have argued a "rigged" election, easier than he has over a few hundred thousand votes in a few key states.

[Towlie]

2. Joe Biden won the popular vote by over 7 million.

 
?

I think it would have been much harder for Trump to make his fraud claims if we went by the popular vote.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. My Mind Is Unchanged

Biden won by 7 million.
450,000 votes in specific states would have let the idiot pervert win.
Then Biden loses with a 6.55 million popular vote margin.
That seems an inherently flawed system, to me.

[Rstrstx]

12. You overestimated that by a factor of 10

The margin of victory was just over 10,000 in Arizona, a little under 13,000 in Georgia and somewhere in the 20,000 range in Wisconsin. That’s roughly 45,000 votes.

Take away those states and Biden would have been tied in the EC with Trump at 269 votes each. If the race had been tied it would have been thrown into the House where each state gets one vote. Since more states are controlled by Republicans it would have almost surely meant a Trump win.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. You're Right!

I think I knew that, but added one too many zeroes. Then did the subtraction from my own mistake.
I doubled down on wrong!

[AllTooEasy]

18. Excellent Point! Best argument against the EC!

Thank You for setting this poster straight

[DrToast]

4. The electoral college is based on the popular votes in each state

I don't see how Trump could have successfully argued the popular vote was rigged without the electoral college.

[comradebillyboy]

5. When the electoral college and the popular vote go for

the same person that is good. Better would be to go with the popular vote and dispense with the electoral college.

[Lithos]

6. IMHO, the Electoral College showed it's age even more this election

Quick glance at a few elections around 1900 (after most states were in, but population densities were still mostly even) - a victory of 51.5% of the population netted around 65% of the electoral votes. The current electoral vote was around 56.5%. Hard to judge because third parties can prove to be significant spoilers. For instance, Clinton won in 1992 with only 43% of the popular vote, but garnered 68% of the electoral college.

But even if abolished, the lack of it will be used as a whipping board by both sides. California will likely take the burden of the finger-pointing.

[Takket]

7. biden won in a massive landslide and the EC still made a "steal" story believable.

it is an undemocratic embarrassment to any civilized nation that we have this thing.

[Blue Owl]

8. Happened to work in our favor this time

But who knows about next time?

Popular vote is more powerful and should prevail over any kind of institution founded in racism...

[AllTooEasy]

9. Answers...

The EC has always been and will always be a bad thing!

Absolutely NOT, Trump still would have failed epically in the courts with his unsubstantiated and baseless voter-fraud claims. Probably worse.

What? That question makes not sense. He lost the EC, so he officially lost the election. If there was no EC, he still would have lost in a humiliating fashion.

How?! Without an EC, he would have needed to challenge all state voting counts, which would have given him much more judicial defeats and costed him much more time and money

Hell Effing No!!! Do you realized that without an EC, neither Trump or George W. Bush would have been elected in the first place?! I should embrace the EC for those atrocities? Seriously?!

When a Dem wins the EC while losing the popular vote, then I might embrace the EC

[Gore1FL]

10. The EC is never a good thing. nt

[ecstatic]

11. Absolutely not. The EC is a racist, outdated system that needs to end

Don't forget the nonsense regarding wannabe rogue electors. That was just a few weeks ago!

[Indykatie]

13. Everyone Should Know By Now Winning the EC is Hard Even With a Massive Popular Vote Win

I will always believe no other Dem could have pulled off a win but Biden. That's scary with the mess that Trump has made in 4 years but true.

[Danmel]

15. I absolutely agree

I haved worked for an elected official for 15 years. Before the primaries my sister and brother in law asked me if i thought Biden could beat Trump.
(They liked him but were concerned). I told them that i actually believed that he was the only one who could beat him. I still think that is the case. Grateful he was our nominee.

[Caliman73]

14. The electoral college is bad. They got it correct this time, but it is bad.

Trump would not have had any claim to the election regardless of the existence of the electoral college. Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 3 million votes. Joe Biden more than doubled that margin and is up over 7 million votes. We knew that Trump was going to call the election "rigged" regardless. He called the election in which he won rigged. The electoral college needs to go.

[Voltaire2]

16. It's shit. Biden won the popular vote by

a huge margin, more than 7 million votes, the electoral vote by something like 60,000.

[Progressive dog]

17. The electoral college remains an anti-democratic

feature of our constitution. Like the senate, it's entrenched. With the electors, Trump only had to get rid of a few hundred thousand votes in four states, without the electors he would have to get rid of seven million votes. The electoral system made the election much easier to steal.

[JI7]

19. Are you not aware that Biden won the Popular Vote ?

[kentuck]

21. Yes, and if the popular vote had come down to only one state...?

Who do you think would have won?

[uponit7771]

22. Until Cali and NY sues for proper EC share its horrible, if they get proper EC share its decent

[Silent3]

23. If the Electoral College were ever to be useful at all, 2016 was its chance

And it blew that chance.

The framers of the Constitution didn't want direct democracy, which they associated with untempered mob rule. They wanted the representatives of a representative democracy to provide a layer of (what they hoped would be) wisdom and restraint to the democratic process, overruling the passions and ignorance of the populace.

If ever there were a time for the Electors to say, "these people don't know what the fuck they're doing, and this man they voted for is totally unfit to serve", it would have been in 2016.

We got the opposite result, in fact. There were ten attempts by Electors to go against the voters of their respective states. Seven of those attempts were successful, with Clinton losing five of the votes that should have been hers, and Trump losing only two.

Yes, faced with someone as completely unfit as Trump, the Electors took more votes away from the eminently qualified candidate than from the ignorant, incompetent, malignantly narcissistic racist demagogue.

[kentuck]

24. True.

You make some very good points.

Those that were afraid of "direct democracy" were afraid of demagogues just like Donald Trump.

I think time has proven that people have the wisdom to guard against those. It is the Electoral College that we should be afraid of.

[The Revolution]

25. It remains irrelevant

Whether it is good or bad remains irrelevant, we're stuck with it. A constitutional amendment is extremely unlikely to pass. I think the popular vote compact is basically a dead end as well, as it is will be difficult to finish passing, could be easily repealed, and would likely be ruled unconstitutional by this Supreme Court.

I think the only realistic solution is to push for a new reapportionment act to increase the number of members in the house, thereby increasing the number of electoral votes, and making it more in line with the popular vote.

[Calculating]

26. Wasn't it originally an appeasement to slave holding states or something?

It's racist, anti-democratic and all-around a bad idea.