November 07, 2002
Electoral College Defense
I've been doing a lot of reading over at Election Methods, which has a lot of information on Condorcet Voting.It's very convincing. What's interesting, though, is that these people writing against it are as strongly against the Electoral College as they are for these decent voting systems.
And I pretty much disagree with that just as strongly. I like the Electoral College. Part of the reason I like it is because it is nifty, and it's dramatic. I'll ignore those defenses for now. Part of the reason other people like it is because if one state like Florida has major fraud problems, other states are insulated from it, and abolishing the EC would remove that insulation. I think that's a stupid defense. (Tangential explanation: If that's the only reason not to, it means they otherwise agree and it needs to be done, in which case they're just being cowards - suck it up and make it work. If it's not the only reason, there are undoubtedly better reasons than that to focus on, so move on from the fear-based one for the same reason.)
Why do I like the EC? Well, I'd tell you, except that one of my reasons
just fell apart in my head while thinking it through, and now I'm not so
sure about it. I'll have to get back to you!
Posted by Curt at November 7, 2002 07:24 PM