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

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Nov 7, 2008, at 9:22 PM, Chris Benham wrote:

>
> Kevin Venzke wrote (Fri.Nov.7):
> Hi,
>
> --- En date de : Ven 7.11.08, Markus Schulze <markus.schulze at  
> alumni.tu-berlin.de> a écrit :
> > Second: It makes it possible that the elections
> > are run by the governments of the individual
> > states and don't have to be run by the central
> > government.
>
> I especially agree with this second point, or at least that it has  
> been
> a good thing that the elections have not been conducted by a single
> authority.
>
> It's possible to imagine a different American history, if the federal
> government had been in a position to cancel or postpone or  
> manipulate the
> presidential election.

Presumably, under that scenario, 50 states could do that to state  
elections. Not to mention a couple of dozen European democracies.

But which country has had its federal supreme court short-circuit a  
national election?

>
>
> Kevin Venzke
>
>
> Kevin,
> Why does having elections for national office run by a "central  
> authority"
> like a federal electoral commission  necessarily mean that the  
> "federal
> government" (presumably you refer here to partisan office-holders with
> a stake in the election outcome) would have the power to "cancel or
> postpone or manipulate" the presidential election?
>
> Can you please support your point by comparing the US with other
> First World countries, perhaps just focussing on the last few decades?
>
> Chris Benham
>
>
> Search 1000's of available singles in your area at the new Yahoo!7  
> Dating. Get Started.
>
> ----
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