The argument comes up every four years. But here is one thing I don't think anybody has thought of.
The military.
According to the Department of Defense (as quoted in Wikipedia) there are currently 1,429,995, as of 2010 (date of the last census); also, there are 850,880 reservists and National Guard members.
Everyone in the military is from somewhere (duh). When deployed, or at a military base not in their home state, they can vote by absentee ballot. But there's not enough military personnel from a single state, or even a single bloc of states, to tip the electoral college one way or the other.
However, abolish the electoral college, you just dumped 2,280,775 votes into the SAME single presidential constituency with the other 308 million Americans (not sure how many are over 18, I'll have to check that), and made them the largest special interest within it.
The military is supposed to be APOLITICAL and that's why we haven't had a coup in this country. They remain apolitical as long as they cannot tip the balance. Remember, elections are won in the margins.
The military remains, and will continue to remain, apolitical IF they're scattered around the country in 51 different voting blocs. But we abolish the EC, you make the US military the single, largest special interest within it.
Even if the military were evenly divided between candidate A and candidate B, a margin of ONE military vote is 1,140,438 voters. All within one voting bloc. Has anyone been elected by the popular vote by less than that in recent times?
Yes! Here a a few "close" elections (less than the size of the current military size...unfortunately I don't have census data for military personnel in these years, however...but I think it demonstrates my point).
534,895 - Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000 (101,455,899 votes cast)
1,683,247 - Carter defeated Ford in 1976 (79,980,515 votes cast)
511,944 - Nixon won over Humphreys in 1968 (72,956,740 votes cast)
112,827 - Kennedy won over Nixon in 1960 (68,329,141 votes cast)
If the EC were abolished, my point is, the military would suddenly have the power to tip the balance in any presidential election. Assuming all the military voted, its current size is 2.25% (roughly) of the number of people who cast votes in 2000. And if there were no EC in 2000, the numbers show that that would have been more than enough to tip the balance. (4.3 times as many mind you!)
And the only other option would be to exclude the military from voting in federal elections, particularly for their own commander-in-chief. I'm sure they'd love that, considering that they're out there fighting for a right to vote which they cannot take part in. In any case, the military, which would now have the power to at least influence a presidential election, would cease to be apolitical. Which is exactly what the doctor ordered in a democracy, don't you think?
The military.
According to the Department of Defense (as quoted in Wikipedia) there are currently 1,429,995, as of 2010 (date of the last census); also, there are 850,880 reservists and National Guard members.
Everyone in the military is from somewhere (duh). When deployed, or at a military base not in their home state, they can vote by absentee ballot. But there's not enough military personnel from a single state, or even a single bloc of states, to tip the electoral college one way or the other.
However, abolish the electoral college, you just dumped 2,280,775 votes into the SAME single presidential constituency with the other 308 million Americans (not sure how many are over 18, I'll have to check that), and made them the largest special interest within it.
The military is supposed to be APOLITICAL and that's why we haven't had a coup in this country. They remain apolitical as long as they cannot tip the balance. Remember, elections are won in the margins.
The military remains, and will continue to remain, apolitical IF they're scattered around the country in 51 different voting blocs. But we abolish the EC, you make the US military the single, largest special interest within it.
Even if the military were evenly divided between candidate A and candidate B, a margin of ONE military vote is 1,140,438 voters. All within one voting bloc. Has anyone been elected by the popular vote by less than that in recent times?
Yes! Here a a few "close" elections (less than the size of the current military size...unfortunately I don't have census data for military personnel in these years, however...but I think it demonstrates my point).
534,895 - Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000 (101,455,899 votes cast)
1,683,247 - Carter defeated Ford in 1976 (79,980,515 votes cast)
511,944 - Nixon won over Humphreys in 1968 (72,956,740 votes cast)
112,827 - Kennedy won over Nixon in 1960 (68,329,141 votes cast)
If the EC were abolished, my point is, the military would suddenly have the power to tip the balance in any presidential election. Assuming all the military voted, its current size is 2.25% (roughly) of the number of people who cast votes in 2000. And if there were no EC in 2000, the numbers show that that would have been more than enough to tip the balance. (4.3 times as many mind you!)
And the only other option would be to exclude the military from voting in federal elections, particularly for their own commander-in-chief. I'm sure they'd love that, considering that they're out there fighting for a right to vote which they cannot take part in. In any case, the military, which would now have the power to at least influence a presidential election, would cease to be apolitical. Which is exactly what the doctor ordered in a democracy, don't you think?