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How can the candidate with most votes lose? The US electoral college explained (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 month ago by ToastedPlanet to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago

It's The USA! The answer is always racism. This time, it's because slave owners didn't want their low level of white male land owners to mean they wouldn't have any say in the government, so low population areas get more voting power and significance than high population areas

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I don't know if that is actually factual. When the system was created it took a long time to communicate with everyone and having a centralized place such as an electoral college made logistical sense. The US is pretty spread out even today. 200 years ago the technology needed to get all of those states to vote was not as easy as calling someone.

[-] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago

It was definitely part racism.

The Three-fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention over the inclusion of slavesin a state's total population. This count would determine: the number of seatsin the House of Representatives; the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated; and how much money the states would pay in taxes. Slave holding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse.

Emphasis mine, but the electoral college was originally disproportionate for more than one reason.

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Oh for sure it was disproportionate. No doubt.

[-] ToastedPlanet 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

States' Senate and House seats are added together to calculate the number of votes each state gets in the Electoral College. The Senate is well known for overrepresenting low population states because each state gets 2 seats regardless of their population. Because the House of Representatives has been capped at 435 seats it also overrepresents low population states. These 538 interactive graphs do a good job of visualizing that. edit: there are two graphs

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/435-representatives/

[-] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

Is the answer dead racist white guys? I bet the answer is some dead racist white guys.

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 month ago

18th century solutions for 21st century problems

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Because USA is a flawed democracy. No more explanation needed.

[-] ToastedPlanet 6 points 1 month ago

No more explanation needed.

This is a question a user posted in another thread.

While I understand their suppressions are an attack on democracy and an attempt to make voting more difficult, why does it disproportionately affect Democrats? Are Republicans just more willing to jump through loops?

I have seen many similar questions and discussions on Reddit in the past before I switched to Lemmy. When one person asks a question it's safe to assume there are more people with the same question, but aren't asking.

Over the course of the year, accelerationist rhetoric has run rampant on Lemmy. People need to know that no matter where they live their vote is desperately needed. Republicans have the advantage in our flawed democracy. The Republican strategy is to sow doubt about the election so they can overturn the results. The closer the count is whether that be the total popular vote count nationwide, a statewide count, a countywide count, or even one polling station's count, the more likely that is to happen. So every vote matters no matter where a person lives.

[-] jmbreuer@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

The idea that Republicans might be willing to "jump through more hoops" would certainly align with Lakoff's ideas (from 2004, mind):

https://medium.com/@ennuid/george-lakoffs-framing-101-7b88e9c91dac

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Everything you write is true, but the most important thing is that it's not supposed to be like that in a democracy. It all boils down to the system in USA being flawed.

[-] ToastedPlanet 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

the most important thing is that it’s not supposed to be like that in a democracy. It all boils down to the system in USA being flawed.

My argument's point is that this is useful rhetorical shorthand, but there are uniformed people who don't know what it is short for. Posts like this are a useful way to educate those people, so they can use and understand that shorthand. Especially when we are this close to the election and these kinds of questions are on peoples' minds. edit: typo

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

OK that's a good point.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

not* a democracy

[-] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

The Guardian - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

Information for The Guardian:

MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.News

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/19/election-electoral-college-explained

Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024

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