ABOLISH Electoral Collage, Popular Vote is Right AND Democratic

When you cast your vote this month, you're not directly electing the president--you're electing members of the electoral college. They elect the president. An archaic, unnecessary system.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy narrowly beat Richard Nixon in the popular voting, 49.7 percent to 49.5 percent, a smaller margin than Cleveland had over Harrison. But wait: Nixon won more states (Nixon 26, Kennedy and others 24). But no: Kennedy, who won bigger states, went on to win the electoral balloting, 303 to 219. This time we, the people, did not strike out. The popular-vote winner became president.

Each state gets as many electoral votes as it has seats in Congress--California has 54, New York has 33, the seven least populated states have 3 each; the District of Columbia also has 3.

These 538 votes actually elect the president. And the electors who cast them don’t always choose the popular-vote winner. In 1888, the classic example, Grover Cleveland got 48.6 percent of the popular vote versus Benjamin Harrison’s 47.9 percent. Cleveland won by 100,456 votes. But the electors chose Harrison, overwhelmingly (233 to 168). They were not acting perversely. According to the rules laid out in the Constitution, Harrison was the winner.

Clearly, in U.S. presidential elections, it ain’t over till it’s over. A popular-vote loser in the big national contest can still win by scoring more points in the smaller electoral college. But isn’t this undemocratic?
As a nation gets larger, each citizen’s voting power shrinks. Voting power--the probability that one vote will turn the election-- ------

I want my right as AN AMERICAN to have my vote count for SOMETHING!

Maybe if My candidate the one I VOTED FOR actually won I would not be so ANGRY at the last 8 YEARS! I could take PERSONAL responsibility because the The person I voted for (GORE) Would be accountable, Instead
of Bush the BUFFOON!

Al Gore's presidential campaign, 2000 details Mr. Gore's effort to win the presidency. In the 2000 election, Gore won the national popular vote, but lost the electoral college vote, after a bitter legal battle over disputed vote counts in the state of Florida. George W. Bush won the election on the electoral college vote of 271 to 266; one elector pledged to Gore did not cast an electoral vote, Gore received 267 pledged electors. The election was one of the most controversial in American history.