[EM] Approval and the Electoral College

[raphfrk at netscape.net]

What about using the following for the electoral college.

A State can split itself into sub-States as long as all sub-States have 
a population larger than the smallest State

sub-States are basically the districts of the system

Each sub-State is allocated votes in proportion to the square root of 
the sub-State's population and either approves or disapproves each 
candidate (voting the entire allocation for that choice)

Each voter can approve or disapprove of each candidate (or neither)

If a candidate gets more approves than disapproves, the sub-State 
approves the candidate.

Otherwise, the sub-State disapproves the candidate

The votes for each candidate is the sum of the votes of sub-States 
which approve less the sum of the votes allocated to the sub-States 
which disapprove

The candidate with the highest total wins unless the candidate gets 
more than 0, in which case (re-run election, House picks, incumbant is 
re-elected ??).

The winner would probably win the popular approval vote, but would 
still need to have distributed support.

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A State can either vote as a single block or split into sub-States and 
get more voting power.  However, if the State is split, it is less 
likely that all sub-States would vote the same as the State would 
overall.  I wonder would states vote as a block or split.

Also, if a State was to split itself into sub-States where each 
sub-State could go either way, the State will likely attract campaign 
attention and in addition to having a higher total vote.  (though that 
may be thinking of a two-party system)

It is slightly range, as approve = +1, disapprove = -1 and none=0.