11/8    Perhaps the electoral college should be changed to give each
        candidate the number of electoral votes proportional to the
        percentage of popular vote they win in that state. This would
        make things a lot more exciting and the outcome of this
        election wouldn't hang on a few thousand votes in FL.
        \_ Why?  Fuck that, use the popular vote.
            \_ Fuck the popular vote.  We live in the United
               **STATES** of America, not the Undifferentiated Blob of
               America.  We don't want something like the following
               happening: I was in IL for '96 Senate election.
               Repub. won _every_ county; except, that is, Cook County
               (where Chicago is) which is so huge and so
               pro-Demo. that the Demo. won the election.
            \_ More exiciting. Ties will be more common, making the
               houses' role in elections important.
                   \_ with the advent of the whole internet thing, we'll
                      all hopefully be able to go back to a popular vote
                      system using email.  a big important factor will be
                      security and preventing tampering with the system.
                      \_ "a big important factor will be security and
                          preventing tempering with the system." G'duh.  And
                          you advocate this over e-mail?  Please don't
                          procreate.
                          \_ Actually, voting over the internet has the
                             potential to be much more secure than voting
                             like we do now. -crypto grad student
        \_ After reading some articles by constitutional lawyers, I think
           that the Electoral College works well a designed. The founding
           fathers wanted to ensure that large centers of population in a
           few states did not dictate federal policy for all states. I'm
           still amazed by the effectiveness of the constitution and of
           the foresight demonstrated by the founding fathers.
           \_ Can you explain a little bit more as to how one (Electoral
              College) leads to the other (large centers of population not
              dictating federal policy for all states)?  It's not
              apparent to me.
              \_ Candidates would only need to visit big cities to win
                 the popular vote, ignoring the backwater hick-states
              One problem I have with Electoral College, is that when
              pupular election, I will feel that my vote always matters.
              I am in a state clearly leaning one way or another, I
              don't feel that my vote counts, whereas if it is a
              popular election, I will feel that my vote always matters.
              \_#t, esp. in CA. The only way individual CA votes mattered
                in this election was that they tipped the popular vote,
                which is meaningful, yet irrelevant to the EC president
                selection system.
             \_ CA wasn't the best example. It was getting sort of close,
                and Gore had some last minute worries about CA.

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