I was writing a response to this
diary and it got a bit long and it's something I've wanted to post about for a long time. I keep reading how people want to abolish the electoral college and go to a popular vote system. I think that the rise in this sentiment is attributed to the way the 2000 election went down, with Gore winning the popular vote but not winning the election. People forget though that without the electoral college there is no country. And I contend that the discontent with the electoral college is a symptom of a problem and focusing on the EC is taking our eye off the ball.
If you remove the electoral college, the small states become irrelevant. And, I contend that the problem with the electoral college is not the electoral colelge. The problem with the electoral college is gerrymandering house districts. The fact that the people's house has been bastardized to have more job protection than either the Senate or the White House with 400+ of the seats totally safe is what's wrong. You end up with primaries deciding the balance of the house and extremists defeating moderates because they can rally the base. If the House of Representatives returned to being the people's house, then things get far less crazy and the electoral college goes back to making much more sense. All that happens if you scrap the electoral college is you end up with a totally new set of problems that will be far worse. The electoral college actually ensures that everyone's vote counts, if things were handled properly in the House and thus the state of politics were one of more balance.
If you've read this far you probably think I'm whacky but it's like a friend of mine (who's fine now) who's shoulder really really hurt all the time, and they couldn't figure out what was going on, thought it was something muscular, and then discovered after several months that he actually had cancer in a different part of his body, it was pinching a nerve and thus his shoulder hurt. Sometimes the symptoms of the disease don't accurately reflect the disease itself. People are upset with the electoral college because they feel that their vote doesn't count unless they live in one of a few "battleground" states. Why do they feel that their vote doesn't count? Because in 400/435 races for the House, there is no contest. The Senate seats were always pretty safe. So most people have absolutely nothing to vote for in the Federal government when they go to vote. People have been totally disenfranchised. So they direct their attention at the top of the ticket when really it's the bottom of the ticket where the problem rests.
Eliminate Gerrymandering, institute the Iowa solution of doing it basically geographically, then the House of representatives becomes more moderate, and almost everyone goes into election day knowing that their vote counts for something. People get more involved in the process, turnout increases, and votes really do start to matter more.
-Fred