Robert’s Comments (group member since Nov 30, 2025)

Robert’s comments from the The Debate Club group.

Sai :) wrote: "Tessie ~face of an angel, mind of a killer~ wrote: "https://www.history.com/articles/elec...

The electoral college was actually a compromised i..."

I taught Civics for a long time to 7th graders and their parents (and other educators too). During our discussions, it became more and more evident that the electoral college is necessary. Why? Because we are a Federal Democratic Republic and not a democracy.
In the Federal Democratic Republic each citizen gets a vote to tell the state who to vote for. And, because each state has a different population, each state gets a representative amount of votes (one for each HR rep and two for each Senator). The total would be HR+2. It is unfair to call the popular vote a federal election. The presidential election are 50 states and DC - total 538 Electoral College votes.
So, the states cast their electoral vote based on the popular vote. The total electors, elect the president once they get to 270 electoral votes (1 over half of Congressional representatives 269+269=538, so 270 wins).
This provides for two things:
1 - popular representation and,
2 - state representation.
However, when state representation receives 270 votes, states remain more powerful than the individual.
It is actually a very good system. It prevents a king from being elected over and over and over and over. This is the reason other "Democracies" around the world do not work.
England for instance - has no state structure. Other Democracies that have popular vote are Russia, Iraq, Iran, China, etc...
This is a check and balance on the people becoming lemmings.
The Electoral College is the reason we are so SUCCESSFUL as a Federal Democratic Republic. States ultimately have the power and together they rule the Federal Government.