The US and democracy.

The electoral college is a sham.

Why?

Let us assume a 50% voter turn out for 5 candidates. This is how it breaks down:

(I know in practical terms it doesn't work this way, but the best way to show the limits of a system is to take it to extremes)

You need 8.65%(17.30% of those who turned up) of the votes to become president.

All you need to do is win in these states (In order):

1. Wyoming


2. D.C.


3. Vermont


4. North Dakota


5. Alaska


6. South Dakota


7. Rhode Island


8. Delaware


9. Montana


10. Hawaii


11. New Hampshire


12. Maine


13. Idaho


14. Nebraska


15. West Virginia


16. New Mexico


17. Iowa


18. Nevada


19. Kansas


20. Arkansas


21. Utah


22. Mississippi


23. Connecticut


24. Louisiana


25. Alabama


26. Oklahoma


27. Colorado


28. Minnesota


29. Oregon


30. Kentucky


31. South Carolina


32. Missouri


33. Tennessee


34. Massachusetts


35. Wisconsin


36. Maryland


37. Washington


38. Arizona


39. North Carolina


40. Indiana

and you get the electoral college votes.

This is because the lack of proprtional represenetation. Consider Wyomin has a voting population of approx 275,000 and 3 electoral college votes, giving you 92,000 votes to get one electoral college vote. Were as Texas has 12,165,200 votes for 34 votes meaning a vote requires 358,000 voters.

So you list all the states and order them by the electoral college vote/voter number proportion, win enough of them to get the 269 required electoral college votes from the top down and bingo.

In other countries you get seats which override the states and are based mainly on population. It would be hugly improved if:

• the number of electoral college votes reflected the population of each state


• Votes were cast at the electoral college in proportion to the way the votes where cast.(A couple of states are already doing this)


• Option preferential voting was introduced.

How we do it.

In Australia we use preferential voting, so at the end of the day the person the majority prefered will get in, based on seats. It doesn't matter how many candidates there are. Voting is compulsory here, so we get a 95% voter turnout. So a candidate needs 50% of the vote in a seat to win. An Australian political party can win with 25% of the vote (50% of the votes in 50% of the seats). We do not vote for the Prime Minister at all; the party with the most seats appoints the Prime Minister.

I would nice if we did vote directly for the prime minister so ultimate say goes to someone with 50% preferences. Or maybe we vote in a President who has power over the Prime Minister as head of state(and not the Queen's Representative that we use now).