[EM] In defense of the Electoral College (was Re: Making a Bad Thing Worse)

[Chris Benham]

Markus Schulze wrote (Fri.Nov.7):

Hallo,

in my opinion, the electoral college has two
advantages to the popular vote.

First: It gives more power to the voters in
smaller states.

[In the USA, the Senate is significantly stronger
than the House of Representatives.

For example: To appoint a Cabinet member or some
other federal officer, the President needs the
approval of the Senate, but not of the House of
Representatives.

Therefore, a deadlock between the President and the
Senate would be more harmful than a deadlock between
the President and the House of Representatives.
Therefore, it makes sense to elect the President
in a manner that corresponds more to the election
of the Senate than to the election of the House
of Representatives.]

-snip-

Marcus,
Presumably then you would favour abolishing the general
presidential election and instead fill the office by a vote
among the members of the Senate.

That would further greatly reduce the chance of a deadlock
between the President and the Senate, and also save a lot of
time and money.

Chris Benham



      Find your perfect match today at the new Yahoo!7 Dating. Get Started http://au.dating.yahoo.com/?cid=53151&pid=1012
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-electorama.com/attachments/20081107/0f01d429/attachment-0003.htm>