[EM] Making a Bad Thing Worse

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Oct 18, 2008, at 7:29 AM, Terry Bouricius wrote:

> Actually, Maine and Nebraska do NOT apportion electoral college  
> seats in a
> proportional way.
> Instead of statewide winner-take-all (as in all other states), they  
> use
> plurality winner-take-all in each congressional district within the  
> state,
> with the remaining two seats going to the statewide plurality  
> winner. The
> results COULD be roughly proportional or even LESS proportional than
> statewide winner-take-all by happenstance of how supporters of various
> candidates are distributed around the state.
>
> However, with true proportional distribution of electors, there is  
> also
> the increased likelihood of no majority winner in the electoral  
> college,
> which throws the election of president to the House of  
> Representatives,
> with one vote for each state (my tiny state of Vermont delegation  
> gets one
> vote and the massive state of California delegation gets one  
> vote)...which
> is even LESS proportional than the electoral college makeup.

All of this would be finessed by the National Popular Vote idea: http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

It'd effectively result in a national FPTP plurality election, hardly  
ideal, but definitely an improvement.

The Electoral College is, btw, a good example of a case in which an  
election method has a profound and obvious effect on the nature of the  
campaign. US presidential candidates have no motivation to campaign in  
California, New York, Texas, and many other states (they show up for  
fundraising events, but that's about it). If California is close,  
Obama has surely lost the election, and similarly Texas and McCain.  
The states in play vary somewhat over time, but I rather imagine  
contain a minority of the electorate.

The effect has been somewhat mitigated of late because of the  
increasing role of national media--cable TV and the net in particular-- 
and those of us in "safe states" can be grateful not to be subjected  
to a retail campaign (and we're free to vote for third-party  
candidates without fear of ill consequence). Still, I'd prefer that my  
vote be relevant to the outcome.