The Electoral College
We've all heard a lot of negative comments on the Electoral College in the press lately, but it surprises me that none of the "political pundits" seems to be able see purposes for it as originally envisioned by the FF (founding fathers.)
Everything the FF's did was for the purposes of checks & balances, and the Electoral College is just one more such device. Imagine a scenario exactly like the one we have now where Bush loses the popular vote and wins the election through the Electoral college.
Also imagine a scenario where a candidate's political machine dishonestly arranges for, say, 50,000 fraudulent votes (dead people, bribes, precinct fraud, phony mail-ins, etc.) in just ten states where that candidate expects to lose. Since the candidate loses in those states the winner is unlikely to raise the specter of fraud and contest election results in states that he's carried. The cheater will not contest since he knows he's cheated. Yet these fraudulent votes would raise the cheater's national vote total by 500,000 votes, meaning they could be enough to dishonestly tip the election in the absence of the Electoral College. For the most part the Electoral College stands in the way of any candidate ever attempting such a strategy as almost always the winner in *each state* receives that state's total Electoral vote, thereby negating any advantage in cheating in states in which a candidate believes he is likely to lose by a distinct margin.
What the Electoral College does is to manage the vote count and the national election, reducing it from one gigantic nation-wide aggregate of over 100,000,000 votes spread out across the nation to a state-by-state case in which it is much easier to check election results. Right now in this election, for instance, can you imagine the turmoil that would ensue if candidates demanded a nation-wide recount? It would be ridiculous, the lawyers would have a field day, and the election process itself could be destroyed, IMHO. As it is, we only have to recount ONE state, since the winner in that state receives all of that state's Electoral votes and wins the very close election. Basically, this is a temendous aid to eliminating organized political fraud, since it eliminates the idea of "cheating a little bit" in several states where you lose the states and yet still manage to win the election itself based on a nation-wide popular vote total. The Electoral College means you *must win* the state to get any credit thereby greatly reducing the motivation for voter fraud in many states. This also makes it easier to track election fraud in those states where it is suspected it might have actually occurred to some degree, which is possible in states where the races are very close.
There's another angle here as well. Let's say we have a state in which election fraud is supported by a high degree of circumstantial evidence--just a hypothetical scenario. The Electoral College would then allow a state's electoral votes to be cast against the recorded popular vote, thus nullifying the suspected election fraud without the necessity of lengthy court procedures which would effectively nullify or destroy the election process itself.
So the Electoral College, far from being a useless anachronism, is simply one more in a long chain of checks and balances the FF's engineered to keep politicians and politics as honest as possible. The EC manages the huge national elections by breaking them down into 50 discrete units which can be managed much more effectively, and much more quickly than any nation-wide aggregate vote totals ever could be. I think it's amazing that none of the "pundits" I watched last night who made comments on the EC understood it for what it actually is (and all of them commented on it.)
The only "flaw" in the Electoral College scenario is that it isn't "perfect." But then, what is "perfect" in our system of government? Hence the need for checks & balances throughout the entire system. Sure, the EC could itself "cheat" and skew an election, but think about it. It would be far, far easier to see and prove EC fraud than it would be to prove election fraud over a number of states, wouldn't it? The small size of the EC is yet another check & balance against election fraud, therefore. IMHO, the EC is a damned fine mechanism and we are lucky to have it. Fie on those who'd see it dismantled...:)