Question

Do the events surrounding the Election of 2000 justify changes to the Electoral College? Explain why you think it does or why you think it does not in a well-written paragraph with at least three reasons.

Answer 1

Of course not. Anyone who thinks democracy is poorly served because the guy who won votes more broadly, in more states (Bush) became President over the guy who won a tiny handful more votes, i.e. who had deeper support in fewer places (Gore) doesn't understand the nature of governing a large multicultural country.

The Electoral College ensures that campaigns and Presidents must pay attention to a broad cross-section of voters. You cannot ignore voters in small states, because even the smallest state has 3 electoral votes. If we did not have the Electoral College, elections would go like they do in England, where candidates only pay attention to what Londoners want, because they can just mine the massive concentration of votes in the capital and ignore what people in the country think. In the present election, both candidates would spend all their time in the big cities of California, New York, Texas, Florida and the Midwest, and completely ignore everyone else. First class dumb idea.

Besides which, the stress of 2000 had little to do with popular vote/EC split. It had more to do with the fact that the Democrats (1) couldn't believe they were losing to a dumb cowboy like Bush, when they had the sophisticated and intelligent Gore as a candidate, and (2) they convinced themselves they really had it won in Florida (which would have made Gore President), and it was only because of vicious racist Republicans disenfranchising minority voters in Miami-Dade that this wasn't apparent. They were wrong about that, as a detailed study commissioned by news organizations later showed -- Bush really did win Florida -- but it was an attractive belief because of (1). It was the business of the recount and the "hanging chad" question of which votes (or "votes") would be counted that caused the rancor.

For example, I am 100% sure that if Obama loses the popular vote this year, but wins in the EC, that Democrats will find the Electoral College a fine institution that should be preserved.