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

[Kevin Venzke]

Hi Chris and Jonathan,

>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?

It doesn't. It's possible to imagine an electoral commission with enough
independence and security to conduct an election that can't be tampered 
with by the government in power at the time.

>Can you please support your point by comparing the US with other
>First World countries, perhaps just focussing on the last few decades?

I don't see why I would focus on First World countries in the last few 
decades. America goes back further than that, and the point is theoretical.

Jonathan wrote:
>>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 necessarily, since there would be some threat of intervention by the
federal government, if democracy were to fail too obviously in a state.

Sometimes people do claim irregularities with a vote within a certain
state.

Kevin Venzke