The Electoral College: Arguments

[jimrtex]

How would a national popular election be conducted?  Would the federal government run the entire process, voter registration and qualifications, voting machines, candidate qualification)?
Would citizens who do not reside in the United States (and the District of Columbia) be permitted to vote?

[jimrtex]

How would a national popular election be conducted?  Would the federal government run the entire process, voter registration and qualifications, voting machines, candidate qualification)?
Would citizens who do not reside in the United States (and the District of Columbia) be permitted to vote?

Federalization of the voting wouldn't be required, but the Bush v. Gore ruling could be used as precedent for that. Of course, ex-pats are allowed to vote if they are still citizens.

So people in Texas could vote a straight ticket, and have it count as a vote for the presidential candidate, but those in North Carolina could vote a straight ticket and not have it count?  And voters in some states might require photo ID, or be required to vote by mail (Oregon), and votes in Washington state could drag in for weeks afterwards, and voters in Texas could vote before the election.  And if a state decidesto let 16 YO to vote, or permanent resident aliens, it would be OK?

And if Florida lets every conceivable party get on the ballot, and other states make it extremely difficult for all candidates to get on the ballot, it is OK?

Should the east coast be required to keep their polling places open until midnight, so that the west coast can close at 9 PM (Alaska and Hawaii to 7 PM).  What about Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Marianas, and American Samoa?

[jimrtex]

Could you imagine how big the ballot would be just being on the popular vote?

I don't see why it would be particularly larger than the current ballot in states with larger than average ballots. It isn't as if the popular vote suddenly makes it possible for minor independents or parties to win the Presidency.

Remember that it was because Florida made it so easy for presidential candidates to qualify that they had to use all the weird ballot formats that confused people.  If you also had to support ranking, it could be a pretty long ballot.

[jimrtex]

Remember that it was because Florida made it so easy for presidential candidates to qualify that they had to use all the weird ballot formats that confused people.  If you also had to support ranking, it could be a pretty long ballot.

New Jersey had more candidates on the ballot than any other state in 2004 (9), and it was not a long ballot. Florida had only one more candidate than that in 2000 (10); a ten-candidate ballot is not a long one, it's routine here, and there was no excuse for the poor ballot design.

Florida also required a space for the write-in candidates.   And they put the name of both the President and VP candidate on the ballot.  Florida counties screwed up the ballot at least 3 different ways, all related to using form factors that had problems handling that many candidates.

[jimrtex]

1. Electoral Votes shall be apportioned among the several States, according to their respective numbers, counting citizens 18-years of age and older.   There shall be at least one electoral vote per 10,000 such citizens.
2. The distribution of electoral votes in each State shall be determined on the basis of popular election by the People of the State, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.   Electors shall cast separate votes for a Presidential and a Vice-Presidential candidate, at least one of which shall not be an inhabitant of the same State.
3. The electoral votes for President and the electoral votes for Vice President in each State shall be allocated in proportion to the popular vote received by each candidate.
4. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes for President shall be elected President, and the candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes for Vice President shall be elected Vice President.  Congress shall by law provide for the case wherein no Presidential candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, or no Vice-Presidential candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes.
5. The Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections to determine the allocation of electoral votes shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law, make or alter such Regulations.
6. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall be treated as if it were a State for purposes of this article.  The Congress will execute the the powers vested in the Legislatures of the States, with respect to the District.
7. The 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of Article II, Section I; The 12th article of amendment, and the 23rd article amendment of the Constitution of the United States are hereby repealed.

[jimrtex]

Nice, but why not just establish the popular vote?

It keeps the federal government from direct management of the election.   It avoids the presumption that people who live in Puerto Rico, etc. should vote for the President of the United States.

In addition, when the initiative and referendum are implemented, electoral votes can be used with a system that requires concurrent majorities (eg a majority of the electoral vote, and a majority of the electoral votes in 3/5 of the States).

And finally, it gives a greater sense of involvement to each voter since they can think that their vote produces an electoral vote or "wins" their state.

[jimrtex]

State	EV	Bush	Kerry	Nader	Badnarik	Peroutka	Cobb	Write-ins	Peltier	Brown	None
AL	339	212	125	1	1
AL	44	27	16	1
AZ	350	192	156		2
AR	202	110	91	1
CA	2070	919	1124	3	8	4	7		5
CO	310	161	146	2	1
CT	248	109	134	2	1		2
DE	59	27	32
DC	43	4	39
FL	1146	597	539	5	2	1	1			1
GA	587	341	243		3
HI	87	40	47
ID	92	63	28		1
IL	867	386	475	1	5
IN	456	274	179		3
IA	222	111	110	1
KS	197	122	72	2	1
KY	311	185	124	2
LA	331	189	140	1		1
ME	99	45	53	1
ME	383	164	214	2	1	1	1
MA	462	170	286	1	2		2	1
MI	735	351	376	4	2	1	1
MN	362	173	185	2	1		1
MS	212	126	85	1
MO	423	225	195		2	1
MT	69	41	27	1
NE	126	84	41	1
NV	136	68	65	1	1						1
NH	93	45	47	1
NJ	584	270	310	3	1
NM	127	64	62	1
NY	1290	517	754	17	2
NC	602	337	263		2
ND	49	31	17	1
OH	861	438	419		2	2
OK	257	169	88
OR	250	118	128		1	1	1	1
PA	946	459	482		3	1	1
RI	77	30	46	1
SC	304	176	125	1	1	1
SD	56	34	21	1
TN	435	247	185	2	1
TX	1376	841	526	2	7
UT	147	105	38	2	1	1
VT	47	18	28	1
VA	522	280	238		2	2
WA	423	193	224	3	2	1
WV	145	81	63	1
WI	403	199	201	2	1
WY	37	26	11
Total	19999	10194	9623	75	63	18	17	2	5	1	1
EV %		50.97	48.12	0.38	0.32	0.09	0.09	0.01	0.03	0.01	0.01
Popular %		50.73	48.27	0.38	0.32	0.12	0.10	0.03	0.02	0.01	0.00

[jimrtex]

How did you determine the amount of EV's?

EVs in each state are apportioned based on Citizen Population over 18.  The EVs in each state were then apportioned use unmodified St. Lague with no threshold. 

St.Lague is roughly equivalent to dividing the total popular vote by the number of EV to determine a quota, then dividing the popular vote for each candidate by this quota, and rounding to the nearest whole number.  St.Lague ensures that the exact number of EVs for a state are apportioned.

The following table shows what the effect of apportioning EVs by total population would be.  Utah has a young population, West Virginia has an old population, other states have a proportionately large non-citizen population.

	Population	Citizen > 18	Pop. EV	Citizen EV
Alabama	4,447,100	3,276,570	316	339
Alaska	626,932	421,983	45	44
Arizona	5,130,632	3,387,552	365	350
Arkansas	2,673,400	1,950,712	190	202
California	33,871,648	20,011,574	2,407	2,070
Colorado	4,301,261	2,993,981	306	310
Connecticut	3,405,565	2,401,238	242	248
Delaware	783,600	567,739	56	59
District of Columbia	572,059	411,044	41	43
Florida	15,982,378	11,081,542	1,136	1,146
Georgia	8,186,453	5,675,210	582	587
Hawaii	1,211,537	842,654	86	87
Idaho	1,293,953	891,064	92	92
Illinois	12,419,293	8,387,117	883	867
Indiana	6,080,485	4,409,194	432	456
Iowa	2,926,324	2,143,474	208	222
Kansas	2,688,418	1,902,932	191	197
Kentucky	4,041,769	3,003,225	287	311
Louisiana	4,468,976	3,198,079	318	331
Maine	1,274,923	959,368	91	99
Maryland	5,296,486	3,698,493	376	383
Massachusetts	6,349,097	4,471,379	451	462
Michigan	9,938,444	7,106,102	706	735
Minnesota	4,919,479	3,501,681	350	362
Mississippi	2,844,658	2,049,386	202	212
Missouri	5,595,211	4,094,716	398	423
Montana	902,195	666,228	64	69
Nebraska	1,711,263	1,219,908	122	126
Nevada	1,998,257	1,317,914	142	136
New Hampshire	1,235,786	902,521	88	93
New Jersey	8,414,350	5,645,884	598	584
New Mexico	1,819,046	1,230,736	129	127
New York	18,976,457	12,476,046	1,349	1,290
North Carolina	8,049,313	5,820,423	572	602
North Dakota	642,200	475,801	46	49
Ohio	11,353,140	8,322,126	807	861
Oklahoma	3,450,654	2,487,713	245	257
Oregon	3,421,399	2,415,985	243	250
Pennsylvania	12,281,054	9,147,224	873	946
Rhode Island	1,048,319	746,333	75	77
South Carolina	4,012,012	2,939,606	285	304
South Dakota	754,844	545,573	54	56
Tennessee	5,689,283	4,202,518	404	435
Texas	20,851,820	13,299,845	1,482	1,376
Utah	2,233,169	1,425,658	159	147
Vermont	608,827	451,982	43	47
Virginia	7,078,515	5,051,517	503	522
Washington	5,894,121	4,088,019	419	423
West Virginia	1,808,344	1,398,620	129	145
Wisconsin	5,363,675	3,900,470	381	403
Wyoming	493,782	360,316	35	37
United States	281,421,906	193,376,975	20,004	19,999