jasonxctf Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Did you know that with the electoral college, no candidate would need to cross the Mississippi River to win the election. You can win by grabbing every state east of the river. In fact, you can win even by losing Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Missisippi and South Carolina as long as you carry the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 In other words...there are more people on the East Coast than on the West Coast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rventura23 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 yup thats how the electoral college works, its all about getting strategic votes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonxctf Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 i think that's what the dem party should do next time. forget about campaigning in New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, etc. Even if no one set foot in CA or HI, we would probably still carry those states. With those (2) states, you could still loose GA, TN, NC, VA, WV, IN, KY, AL, MS, SC and still win. Just put all of your time, effort and money into FL, OH, PA and maintain your "slight dem" states of WI and NH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(rventura23 @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 05:29 PM) yup thats how the electoral college works, its all about getting strategic votes And it's a pointless system at this time in history. Useless, and in fact is incongruous with our "democracy". It's time has past, but no politicians have the balls to get rid of it. This one needs the courts. Next time someone wins the Presidency without the popular vote, someone needs to get this thing removed by the judicial system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rventura23 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 05:43 PM) And it's a pointless system at this time in history. Useless, and in fact is incongruous with our "democracy". It's time has past, but no politicians have the balls to get rid of it. This one needs the courts. Next time someone wins the Presidency without the popular vote, someone needs to get this thing removed by the judicial system. I agree its time has passed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_genius Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 04:43 PM) And it's a pointless system at this time in history. Useless, and in fact is incongruous with our "democracy". It's time has past, but no politicians have the balls to get rid of it. This one needs the courts. Next time someone wins the Presidency without the popular vote, someone needs to get this thing removed by the judicial system. Unless, of course, a Democrat won the electoral college and lost the popular vote. Then the electoral college would be an important institution in our democratic system. right northsidesox72? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heads22 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 04:42 PM) i think that's what the dem party should do next time. forget about campaigning in New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, etc. Even if no one set foot in CA or HI, we would probably still carry those states. With those (2) states, you could still loose GA, TN, NC, VA, WV, IN, KY, AL, MS, SC and still win. Just put all of your time, effort and money into FL, OH, PA and maintain your "slight dem" states of WI and NH. Um, Iowa wouldn't hurt for the dems. We've been dem for a while with the slim excpetion of 04. It's not an upset for a dem to win IA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heads22 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(mr_genius @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 04:48 PM) Unless, of course, a Democrat won the electoral college and lost the popular vote. Then the electoral college would be an important institution in our democratic system. right northsidesox72? You know damn well republicans would play it the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_genius Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 04:50 PM) You know damn well republicans would play it the same way. of course, i never said they wouldn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rventura23 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Independent of who wins its not the best system, plus it heavily weights votes ; someone living in a state that consistently and convincingly votes one way or another, his votes is worth nothing compared to someone in an important district of ohio or florida whose votes are very important Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonxctf Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 on this topic, there is a cool website called www.270towin.com you can view every electoral college result in US History. Even back to hte 1st Presidential Election where Washington won with 69 electoral votes. Pretty neat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 QUOTE(mr_genius @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 05:48 PM) Unless, of course, a Democrat won the electoral college and lost the popular vote. Then the electoral college would be an important institution in our democratic system. right northsidesox72? I'm not a Democrat. Also, I'm not a winger. Not sure why you thought I was a Dem, but if you look at the body of my posts in here, you'll see I'm as much on the right side of the aisle as the left. And as Heads said, it will be whichever party gets bitten in the ass. I'll just be happy when it happens again to someone, so that we can get that thing toppled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandy125 Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 I'll just add a thought about our electoral college. It has been said that it gives the states with lesser populations the ability to have their say in who is elected President. That way, it is not always the cities that have their way, but small town America gets to have a voice as well. If we switched to popular votes, due to population. These are the states that would gain a bigger voice (they happen to be the most populous). New Jersey Georgia Virginia Indiana Washington Ohio Michigan Illinois Pennsylvania New York Florida California Texas 24 states would actually lose a bit of power if this were to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 I hate the electoral college. Always have. I'm a big one person-one vote guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 01:57 AM) I hate the electoral college. Always have. I'm a big one person-one vote guy. Considering that you are young guy (right?) and basically a Democrat, that is understandable. Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush. The EC hasn't been to kind to you in your lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rventura23 Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Jan 13, 2006 -> 06:01 PM) on this topic, there is a cool website called www.270towin.com you can view every electoral college result in US History. Even back to hte 1st Presidential Election where Washington won with 69 electoral votes. Pretty neat. I like how the subtitle is "this isnt a popularity contest" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 08:31 AM) Considering that you are young guy (right?) and basically a Democrat, that is understandable. Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush. The EC hasn't been to kind to you in your lifetime. In this century, I believe there have been 2 Presidents elected to office by electoral college who did not carry the popular vote: one Republican (Bush II), and one Democrat (Kennedy). The fact that there have been more GOP Presidents in the last 25 years is not relevant to discussion of the electoral college, since Reagan, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II II all won the popular vote (most by a large margin). The electoral college has no logical reason for existence at this point in time. President is a national office, and should be voted on nationally. Like I said earlier, I hope we have another election soon where that duality occurs, so that we can get this thing knocked out. And I could care less which party does the complaining. Let's have some objectivity in this discussion (instead of just flinging stuff from the wings). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowerCaseRepublican Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 12:29 PM) Let's have some objectivity in this discussion (instead of just flinging stuff from the wings). "Every vulture needs a left wing and a right wing to get from corpse to corpse." - Bob Backas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NUKE_CLEVELAND Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 12:29 PM) In this century, I believe there have been 2 Presidents elected to office by electoral college who did not carry the popular vote: one Republican (Bush II), and one Democrat (Kennedy). The fact that there have been more GOP Presidents in the last 25 years is not relevant to discussion of the electoral college, since Reagan, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II II all won the popular vote (most by a large margin). The electoral college has no logical reason for existence at this point in time. President is a national office, and should be voted on nationally. Like I said earlier, I hope we have another election soon where that duality occurs, so that we can get this thing knocked out. And I could care less which party does the complaining. Let's have some objectivity in this discussion (instead of just flinging stuff from the wings). Im in favor of keeping the status quo. Im absolutely positive the founders had this very same debate when the Constitution was being drawn up and theres a very good reason why things are the way they are. We get rid of the electoral college then the views of the small states become irrelevant as candidates focus on Cali, NY, TX, IL, OH and Florida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSFAN35 Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 02:42 PM) Im in favor of keeping the status quo. Im absolutely positive the founders had this very same debate when the Constitution was being drawn up and theres a very good reason why things are the way they are. We get rid of the electoral college then the views of the small states become irrelevant as candidates focus on Cali, NY, TX, IL, OH and Florida. the reason the electoral college was formed was because our leaders felt that citizens weren't informed enough to make a proper decision. Todays voters are much better informed (although both parties spew propoganda come election time). People feel that there is no need to vote; in California or Illinois democrats are going to win the electoral vote no matter what. If the format was changed to a popular vote, the voter turnout would increase dramatically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Kennedy did win the popular vote but just barely. Had 120,000 votes gone Ford's way, Carter would have won the popular vote but lost the electoral college in 1976. Bush would have won the popular vote but lost the electoral college in 2004 too. And I've actually said here, I would rather Kerry have won, but I would rather Kerry had won in the popular and electoral mandate. The last thing I wanted was having a Kerry electoral college victory and a popular vote loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NUKE_CLEVELAND Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 03:31 PM) Kennedy did win the popular vote but just barely. Had 120,000 votes gone Ford's way, Carter would have won the popular vote but lost the electoral college in 1976. Bush would have won the popular vote but lost the electoral college in 2004 too. And I've actually said here, I would rather Kerry have won, but I would rather Kerry had won in the popular and electoral mandate. The last thing I wanted was having a Kerry electoral college victory and a popular vote loss. Wait a minute, I thought Bush's victory with both the popular AND electoral vote wasn't a mandate. Is it only a mandate when the leftist candidate wins? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 12:29 PM) In this century, I believe there have been 2 Presidents elected to office by electoral college who did not carry the popular vote: one Republican (Bush II), and one Democrat (Kennedy). The fact that there have been more GOP Presidents in the last 25 years is not relevant to discussion of the electoral college, since Reagan, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II II all won the popular vote (most by a large margin). The electoral college has no logical reason for existence at this point in time. President is a national office, and should be voted on nationally. Like I said earlier, I hope we have another election soon where that duality occurs, so that we can get this thing knocked out. And I could care less which party does the complaining. Let's have some objectivity in this discussion (instead of just flinging stuff from the wings). For the record, I wasn't trying to fling anything from the wings. I was trying to look at an angle from a younger person's perspective and threw it out there to see if it was part of the equation. It wasn't. Fine. Just say so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowerCaseRepublican Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 14, 2006 -> 04:13 PM) Wait a minute, I thought Bush's victory with both the popular AND electoral vote wasn't a mandate. Is it only a mandate when the leftist candidate wins? It wouldn't have been a mandate either way because half the voting age population doesn't f***ing vote in the damn first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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