[EM] Making a Bad Thing Worse

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

Jonathan Lundell wrote:
> 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.

Could the national popular vote lead to a similar effect, only opposite? 
The candidates would have an incentive to visit the cities, because they 
could reach many voters in little time; and thus the effect would move 
from being biased away from cities (in the large states) to being biased 
towards them.

Better might be a weighted vote (but who'd set the weights?).