OT: This Week In Voting Machine Security 3439
Michelle Steiner
Yes. But it still gives the residents of smaller states a greater voice than those in larger states. We may have "one person one vote" but some votes do, by design, count more than others.
The indirectness of the EC (where electors actually make the decision) is a reflection of that. But the way that electors are buttigned to states is a compromise between the Senate way of doing things and the House. Unlike Congress (in which the Senate has more power), the buttignment of the number of electors to states leans more to the House way than the Senate way.
The structure of Congress gives substantially more voice to residents of small states than to big ones. The structure of the EC gives slightly more voice to residents of small states to big ones. All for the same reasons.
If you wish to advocate direct democracy, that is fine. You can regret that the consbreastution gives so much federal power to states instead of the people directly. You can be glad that the Federalists won the battle for the Consbreastution (the anti-Federalists wanted states to have even more power). But don't go quoting "We the People" to pretend that the Consbreastution doesn't say what it says. And certainly don't leave out the words that follow your selection: "...of the United States ..."
Picking on the EC for its slight by design bias toward small states while ignoring the extreme by design bias for small states in Congress suggests to me that your claimed underlying principle (equal voice to each voter) isn't really what is motivating your objection to the distribution of EC electors to states.
But this is also selective perception. Many (if not most) of those trying to invoke...
Look, I know that in my examples and in this case, I've been mostly picking on the left. I could just as easily grab examples from the right. But there are two reasons why I've been mostly picking on the left. I tend to vote with the left. And so, even to myself, picking examples from the left are more credible coming from me.
Well, originally, the senate was supposed to represent the states, and senators were appointed by the governors of the states. If there were no house, I'd have...
Michelle Steiner Funny how times change. This has been going since the beginning of the Union. The smaller...
The second reason is that it seems to bother me more when my side misbehaves than when the other side does.
-j
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