from Hacker News

Use the Electoral College the way it was intended

by btcboss on 11/10/16, 7:31 PM with 24 comments

  • by ng12 on 11/10/16, 8:03 PM

    > Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.

    The Electoral College is in the constitution. The popular vote has never been a method for electing the president by design.

  • by bbctol on 11/10/16, 8:00 PM

    If people are worried about a Donald Trump presidency because they're afraid he'll break norms, tear down established systems, and use his elected status to remove any independent/non-populist institution, it is not a good idea to start with this.

  • by serge2k on 11/10/16, 8:31 PM

    1. She won a plurality of the popular vote. Yes, it's winning but it's not even a majority.

    2. You don't get to just toss out rules because you lost. 3 days ago people were shitting on trump for this type of rhetoric.

    3. The fact that the electoral college exists fucks up the popular vote. A republican has no voice in California, and a democrat has none in Texas. Having it be an actual popular vote would change voter behaviour pretty drastically.

    4. The electoral college is not a system which values votes equally. A vote in California is worth less than a vote in wyoming. Some people like that because of the idea of tyranny of the majority. Some people say that's ridiculous and a popular vote is the only good system. Figure it out for yourself, I say that geographic based representation is why we have the senate. Of course I like the democrats and the coastal population centers would be a massive boost.

    5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Intersta...

    6. Fight for an amendment. Ranked voting in a popular vote based presidential election? Guess what not you can vote for bernie and johnson first before your vote finally goes to Clinton, instead of being whiny and ruining things for the rest of us.

  • by aglavine on 11/10/16, 8:06 PM

    A different system would have leaded to different outcome. You can't expect voters behaving the same when the rules change.

    Also, Arrow's theorem is valid for any system

  • by roryisok on 11/10/16, 8:02 PM

    I really can't see this happening. There's no precedent and it would lead to serious civil unrest.

  • by bdcravens on 11/10/16, 8:51 PM

    If we want the electors to vote with their conscience, and not blindly accept who won what states (2 candidates coming out of conventions is absolutely NOT what the forefathers intended) then perhaps Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders still have a very good chance? Otherwise it sounds like the petition is calling for keeping and trusting the system as it has always been, except at the very last moment.

  • by bdcravens on 11/10/16, 8:39 PM

    It's worth noting that for much of the night, per the media, Trump had a 1m+ popular vote advantage. If it had turned the other way (Clinton victory w/ Trump popular vote win) people would be screaming if the Trump camp called for this.