Clinton's Lead In Popular Vote Exceeds 2 Million

[Kromovaracun]

For the fourth time in American history, the Presidential candidate who won the most votes managed to lose the electoral college because of how those votes were distributed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/clinton-lead-popular-vote-2016-231790?cmpid=sf

Is it time for the Electoral College to go, or does it still serve a valuable purpose today as it did 200+ years ago?

Does this historic disparity mean that Trump should not take office, or would that be too damaging to the US political system?

[jno]

ichkeria, I seem to remember some college member refusing to vote for Gore in 2000 even though voters had backed him - but I think the reason I remember is that it was incresibly rare.

[Togo]

//Oh take a joke can't you Togo :-) //

Oh make a joke can't you ichkeria :-)

[mikey4444]

Icheria....please cast an eye over my link that explains how the EC works.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/what-is-the-electoral-college_n_2078970.html

In about half the States, the EC is obliged, by law, to vote for the candidate, in other States it doesn't. and in two States, some kind of PR is used.

So..... the EC is widely inconsistent across the country, thus allowing Trump to claim a victory where no real victory existed.

[ichkeria]

I didn't fully understand the link to be honest mikey :-)
It starts off talking about choosing candidates to be president and by the end is plainly talking about the presidential election but it wasn't clear to me at what point it switched :-)
It's bound to be complicated if you have 50 states plus one involved. All with their own systems

[mikey4444]

Icheria....I think that the last thing anyone expected the EC to be, was easy to understand !

[jourdain2]

That's their system. Americans knowingly vote within it. From what I have read, it was set up precisely to stop more populated states overriding the smaller ones. Seems to have worked.

[mikey4444]

jourdain......"Seems to have worked"....in what way ?

The less popular candidate won and "it seemed to have worked"

[EDDIE51]

It's not just the electoral college system, the problem is in the selection of the final candidates.Better and more suitable candidates were lost in the selection process, they ended up with a choice of 2 poor options.

[naomi24]

//......"Seems to have worked"....in what way ? //

The way all other US Presidential elections work. Someone said yesterday that this is the fourth time this has happened.

[mikey4444]

Eddie....my advice to the Americans is to batten down the hatches, and hope this numbskull won't do too much damage over the next 4 years.

[naomi24]

Mikey, no doubt the American people will be very grateful for your advice.

[jim360]

The Electoral College works, if that's the right word, because it basically treats the people living in the US as less important than states. But that's not really a system of proper democracy, is it? I thought that returning power to the people was all the rage these days.

Also, OG with his usual guff about "FPTP is the best system", I see...

[jno]

The way all other US Presidential elections work.

by periodically handing power to someone who didn't win the popular vote. That's twice this century.

[naomi24]

^Indeed.

[Jackdaw33]

The argument against abolishing the EC, according to US sources, is that the President would be effectively chosen by 5 states. There would be no incentive for the huge swathe of other states to remain in the union in that case.

[jim360]

Problem is that even with the EC you only need 11 states to win -- so it doesn't really solve the problem, if that is a problem. And, again, why is it OK to ignore people over states?

[whiskeryron]

I do not believe there is a political system in the entire world that would suit every individual. Someone will always be upset at decisions taken by a majority.

[Jackdaw33]

They should copy the example of North Korea. No arguments there as to who is the boss.

[jno]

if the president would be chosen by five states, this is presumably because those are the places where most Americans want to live. I don't know why their residency choices should determine how much their vote is worth - that's how parliament and congress work, but in a straight vote between two (or however many) candidates for a single job, every person's vote could and should be equal.

[Jackdaw33]

If you don't understand that you don't know how the USA works. The thirty Republican states feed the rest. Why should they stop in a Union which ignores them? We have already had one civil war in America, nobody wants two.