What should be done about the Electoral College in picking the president?
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B. Ditch it; let popular vote decide (881 Votes)
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A. Status quo; works (606 Votes)
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C. Unsure; need to know more (131 Votes)
This is not a scientific poll — results reflect only the opinions of those voting.
60 responses to “What should be done about the Electoral College in picking the president?”
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The uninformed would choose popular votes. Don’t they know that Clinton won the popular vote count because she had 2.5 million more votes in the state of California. This means States such as New York and California would be choosing our president.
Agree with you. Also the term “ditch” not used properly to advocate change in the Constitution.
Thank you!
Agree. The question should then ask : do you want to give up states and their rights, since the liberal overpopulation states New York and Cal would be able to dictate everything.
you got that right kiragirl!
i going poke fish now
aloha
Way to go kiragirl, I see I’m not the only one who knows that. Added fact, Cal. let’s illegals get a drivers license without proving there United States citizens which also lets illegals vote. Take all that away, and she sure as hell isn’t that popular.
No more poke fishing here have to go get salmon. Have a nice day.
Ditto.
Totally agree!
IRT KiraGirl, fully agree with your post. Our founding fathers possessed outstanding vision for our Country and set up this system to provide every State the opportunity to be players in the selection of our President. And, they had only 13 States, with 37 States to follow.
@ girl – Agree.
Agree , the big city state’s would rule us all. Let it alone.
Right ON Sista Kira! The Electoral votes were designed & established specifically for this reason,that No one State,despite it’s population alone ,can rule the Nation…. Leave The Electoral College vote process alone.
Exactly right. Also, Hillary won the popular vote of votes counted. Not all of the votes have been counted. If a candidate wins by a certain amount of votes to secure the electoral college votes of that state, they do not count the absentee votes. There are approximately 2 million uncounted votes right now that generally go 65-35 Republican. So, in all likelihood, Hillary did not win the popular vote, either.
I compliment you on explaining why the Electoral College works…some will still not get it! 🙂
The sad thing is this Poll would never be run if the election had gone the other way in this state! America is far from perfect, but its still the only place I would ever what to live in this world. God Bless all of us, and pray for our future as the closest example of a free country that has ever existed moves forward. Aloha
Disagree. If it had gone the other way then we would be facing more violence because opponents would say that the election was rigged.
Come now, Wiliki. We are all Americans. Those who are rioting, violent, hurting fellow Americans, and destroying property are truly un-American. Don’t you agree?
Because wiliki would be rioting with the sore losers too
No. Couple of points: McVeigh was still an American even though he did wrong. Rather having people destroy property than destroy lives. The right tend to kill people while the left tends to destroy property.
Stop that!
McVeigh was one criminal and he wasn’t protesting the legal results of a fair election. This is thousands of sore losers who suddenly don’t like the electoral college because their candidate lost.
If you had run the people’s choice, Bernie, he would have won. Don’t you remember how Hillary said it was despicable and unamerican to not accept the results of the election? It was just last week she said it.
More hypothetical rhetoric from a supporter of the losing party. Accept the results of the election like a mature person and a true American.
I think you will find that wiliki will accept Donald’s election far more than those on the right accepted Obama’s election. The question though will republicans accept the Donald once he reveals himself to be far different from the clown he ran as. He is already back tracking on a number of issues. (Which is good but will upset many of his supporters.)
Bill Clinton tried to cheer up Hillary this morning.
He reminded her that Nelson Mandela wasn’t elected President until after he had served 27 years in prison.
Wilily: You have nothing to prove that! Ge over it already, we had the same feelings when the dems won the last two times and the world did not implode. People could see that the last 8 yrs did nothing to help our country move forward. The actions of the demonstrators is “DEPLORABLE”. Where is the President, Hilary and the rest of the dems calling for peaceful transition? I hope President Obama picks up that phone he dropped in the Jimmy Kimmel skit and calls for calm. After all when they go low, we will go high! RIGHT?
Actually the world did move forward significantly. The sad fact is the country moves forward when democrats are in control but have moved backwards when republicans have been in control. What positive thing have republicans done? Frankly I believe the interstate highway system under Eisenhower was probably the last truly beneficial thing they did.
Under Obama the budget deficit has been drastically reduced along with unemployment. I suspect that under the Donald this will reverse itself.
wiliki says “If it had gone the other way then we would be facing more violence because opponents would say that the election was rigged.”
Liar.
It went the other way 4 years ago and 8 years and there was no rioting in the streets and smashing storefronts. This is on your team.
Exactly Kalaheo1 !!
Have you been to other places in the wold? I have visited a few places and I have come to the conclusion that most places have their good points and their bad points. While I am not going to be moving anytime soon, there are many places in the world I wouldn’t mind living.
….so what you said about moving to Australia? Was just “All Talk and No Action” ……C’mon Boots there’s going to be a time when you’re to have to “Put-up OR Shut-up”…….you’re NOT Putting up! You lack all credibility.
lol, we will be going on a cruise that will be starting in Australia. But no, I don’t think I will move. Hawaii is a pretty good place to live and I will really enjoy it when the right starts calling the Donald a RINO. lol
Yup! “All Talk and NO Action”.We all get it! Hawaiians call this what? “Waha Nui”! Or in Australian Aboriginal Translation……BIG MOUTH!
I’d imagine ditching the Electoral would benefit the Democratic Party.
Keep on giving illegal amnesty or bringing in refugees and the Dems will rule!
That is probably true since the red states get more representation.
ha ha ha, funny how the dems now want to change the rules of the system after they lose. boo hoo
The popular vote should determine the winner.
The electoral vote, was designed, during an era, when the communications of information, took months to reach Washington DC.
The newspapers & telegraphs could be manipulated.
And computers can’t ?
If popular vote determines the winner, then the candidates focus on NYC, California, Chicago and the rest of the country, like Hawaii, gets ignored.
For Hawaii, we should have an open primary election.
We should be able, to pick & choose, the best candidates, without being forced to stay within one party.
Whaaat? We have more than one party?
Hawaii only has one party. The only way, that people can vote for a person of their choice, without a party vote only, is an open primary.
We have an open primary. You can chose any party you want although only one party generally have any candidates.
I agree that going just with the popular vote would unfairly favor areas of dense population. The all or nothing interpretation of the electoral college doesn’t work all that well either. If Electors were appointed by districts, for example congressional districts, and charged with expressing the will of the voters in those districts, it might more accurately reflect the wishes of everyone.
Sore losers
The electoral votes was intended to speed up the vote count and provide a check and balance system. But, the problem is the all or nothing electoral vote count. The count should be balanced to reflect the actual votes. I believe a couple of states are doing that now.
?? In fact with technology today, the computers could count the actual votes in a fairly short period of time. Then, it wouldn’t be a state by state count … but a total count of the USA.
Should have never happened from long long ago. USA is people not the under elected people.
Sour grapes
While not all that great a fan of the Electoral college, doing away with it would mean that presidential campaigns will be concerned with the large states like California, Texas and NY and the small states like Hawaii will be ignored. Not that Hawaii is paid attention to now, but if it changes to just a popular vote, we will be totally ignored. Maybe that is a good thing? 🙂
Why should my vote not matter depending on what state I live in? The present winner-take-all setup of the electoral college is NOT part of the Constitution, and it has NO provision for supposedly distributing influence more equally among the states. The Constitution leaves the states free to allocate their electors however they want. The winner-take-all system started as a way for the parties to consolidate their power; it worked, and that is why we should go to an every-vote-equal procedure. Check it out at nationalpopularvote.com where all the arguments are laid out. We don’t even need to change the Constitution to achieve election by national popular vote! If the states agree, it happens.
Read my explanation and educate yourself. The electoral system IS part of the US Constitution and while it is left to the states to determine who the electorate would vote for, they have never voted against the popular vote of their particular state.
Eliminating or even changing the Electoral College would make the US closer to a pure democracy when in fact we are a republic, not a democracy. Total democracies have failed (Rome and others) and our forefathers knew this. They also saw the fact that the most populated states would control the country and decided to use the electoral system to levelize the playing field, so to speak. A good example is to use the most recent MLB World Series. If only the runs scored was used to determine a winner, each team scored 27 runs the World Series would have been a tie. HOWEVER, the World Series is just that, a series of games which may be likened to the separate US States. Each game is played and won by the score of that particular game. The team that wins the most games (states in the case of our Presidential Election) wins the World Series. Comprehend?
Changing the electoral system would take an amendment of the US Constitution. Not impossible but that would take years, decades, to accomplish. First of all 75% of Congress must agree to the amendment. Then each state must vote on it and 75% of the States must approve of it.
So Clinton won the votes in the larger population states and Trump won most of the states. Comprehend?
Why do you make polls with leading emotional questions ?… whose responsibility is it to explain the WHY it is made like that …is that helping the situation or self serving ..more emotional news …
……why was this poll question NOT asked during the Obama 2012 election? When President Obama (332 Elec/Votes)”Shellacked” Mitt Romney(206 Elec/Votes) for the presidency and where were the Riots we see today?
They the Republicans didn’t dispute the Electoral college results? Like Big Boy’s,The Republicans accepted the outcome of the electoral vote Period !
Why does the SA ask these kinds of questions ONLY when they,The Democrats lose?
SA? You’re NOT Helping a smooth transition into the New Presidency,which we the people has thus, decided! We won you lost…end of Story.
That was my point! SA Only asks these types poll questions (Owned by the Washington Post) to push their agenda.
SAD
Aloha!
Although the election is over, the Electoral College as it is called now still has to officially cast their votes and the votes need to be tallied in a special session of the Congress
in mid December. And there are still two states in which the November 8 vote is still being tallied and as such the unofficial electoral vote from these states have yet to be
counted for either Trump or Clinton. Most states require that their electoral voters give their votes to whomever wins the popular vote but over the years there have been
electors which have violated that rule but if they do their votes become invalid.
Trump for all practical purposes is the President elect. There have been some rumblings about Clinton supporters trying to sway the official electoral vote when it takes place
in December but that is probably going nowhere.
President George W Bush won the electoral votes but lost the popular votes to Al Gore in 2000. No grumbling about getting rid of the Electoral College system back then.
Actually, there was a fair amount of grumbling, but the sore losers didn’t go out and smash storefronts of small businesses, block the roads of working people trying to get home from work after a long day, and set trash fires.
These sore losers have set a new low in incivility and ceded the moral height ground to Donald Trump. Guys, just go home. It time you and the rest of the DNC stopped shooting yourselves in the feet.
Obviously many of the posters on this forum know ZERO about the electoral college, and voted for change just because Clinton lost. That’s the problem with Hawaii voters as a whole…..they really fail to research the facts and voted instead by who they heard of, what their peers and unions tell them, etc. Quite ignorant, but then we knew that already right?
It is irresponsible for SA to publish such an article because they know why the electoral college was formed and why it is an important part of out democracy. This article is catering to to Dem voters. Is the bias ever going to end?
Sure would cost alot of money to change the public school book texts.