John Samples Defends the Electoral College

What about the democratic principle of one person, one vote? Isnt that principle essential to our form of government? The Founders handiwork says otherwise. Neither the Senate, nor the Supreme Court, nor the president is elected on the basis of one person, one vote. Thats why a state like Montana, with fewer than one million residents, gets the same number of Senators as California, with 33 million people. Consistency would require that if we abolish the Electoral College, we rid ourselves of the Senate as well. John Samples defends the Electoral College on C-SPAN's Washngton Journal.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• john
• samples
• cato
• institute
• electoral
• college
• votes
• democracy
• liberty

[unodepoalli]

Hey Rob Richie,America is not a mob rule democracy it's a constitutional republic.Our founding fathers hated demorcracy.

[flylike1]

candidates currently have no reason to campaign in states such as texas, california, new york, most of the south, most of the northeast, but instead focusing on swing states (that the electoral college's winner-take-all system creates) like ohio, florida, and pennsylvania.

Candidates would have to campaign to and win over ALL undecided voters across the nation. as it stands now they only care about undecided voters in swing states. one vote does not equal one vote.

[cannonbrooke]

@flylike1 17th

[ChummyJermel]

@Shephild That's not logical. If ALL votes are equal then they are equal it gets rid of the value of states unlike NOW....

[flylike1]

also cato, the senate IS now elected by DIRECT POPULAR vote per (i think) the 19th amendment. correct me if i'm wrong, but the Senate IS elected by direct popular vote by the people. The President is the ONLY ELECTED OFFICIAL that does not have to win the majority of voters over the area which they are allowed to govern

[flylike1]

cato, i have a response to your claim that "consistancy would require that we abolish the senate as well"

that's incorrect.

the senate is in place to balance the interest's of small state's as well as large ones. if there were no senate for small state's to gain equal representation the representatives from the more populous states could dictate to the smaller ones.

the senate arose out of the "checks & balances" idea- to keep groups from getting to powerful

[Shephild]

Rob Richie is an idiot. He makes an argument about campaigning that SUPPORTS the Electoral College system. If Presidential elections were based on the national popular vote, canidates would only campaign in Texas, California, New York and possibly Florida. Why campaign is fidgid Wyoming or rainy Washington when those vote won't really contribute anything?

[shanklinmike]

Our liberty-minded constitutional democratic-republic must be defended before we fall completely down the oligarchy rabbit hole.

[MooseOfReason]

Sounds like a name that would be on a sample ballot.

John Q. Samples.