The Electoral College: still a bad idea

With a reasonable (although not especially high) chance of an Electoral split again this year, I just wanted to stake out my position before the dust settles.

The Electoral College is a silly system, which produces undemocratic results, and structures campaigns in ways that prevent us from ever achieving even the possibility of a ‘real’ result. It is, however, the system that currently controls our elections – and is not so terrible that it is fundamentally unjust.

Which is to say: I strongly support reform and will do so regardless of the specific results of this election. But I consider the results produced by the Electoral College to be legitimate enough. Just like I did in 2000.

The travesty that was 2000 was partially the fact that Gore lost despite getting more votes. That was a generalized problem. But I want to also stress that most people on the left who were really upset were focused on Florida, and the halting of vote-counting there. The Electoral College is a larger injustice of the system, but it does produce valid results. The Florida stuff was about changing the rules of the game in mid-stream.

I obviously don’t want another Electoral split, but if it does occur (in Obama’s favor), I hope that it helps to unite everyone in annoyance at the stupidity of our current system. I’m sure Republicans would be unhappy about it, and I don’t expect that Democrats would radically shift their position either, so it’s at least a theoretical possibility.