What if none of the states were close enough for a recount, but the country as a whole was?
Legolas Send a noteboard - 05/11/2012 09:23:33 PM
i always see this argument when abolishing the electoral college comes up. and every time i have to wonder: why would there need to be a nation-wide recount in a close election? i highly doubt obama's vote totals in california or new york would fall within the range of a mandatory recount, much like romney's totals throughout much of the south. so we'd still end up recounting those few states whose votes *do* end up within the margin of error. same as we have now, only there is not some made-up number of votes associated with winning the state anymore, it is the actual vote total for each person who cast a valid ballot.
And even if not for the above scenario: if there's a nation-wide vote and it's close enough nation-wide for a recount, how on earth can you justify the arbitrary decision of recounting only those states in which the vote happened to be very close too? Since it wouldn't matter one bit in which state a vote was cast, why then should e.g. Ohio and Florida votes be recounted but no others? There would no longer be any reason to argue that a small counting error in those very close states would have a larger effect on the election than an equally small counting error in a state with a totally lopsided result.
Could Ohio Kill the Electoral College?
- 05/11/2012 04:43:48 PM
702 Views
Well, let's hope Romney takes Pennsylvania, too, so we don't have to worry about this. *NM*
- 05/11/2012 05:46:22 PM
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I do not think even the GOPs massive PA vote suppression effort is enough to accomplish that.
- 05/11/2012 06:38:05 PM
374 Views
It's not impossible. I roughly reversed engineered Silver's tipping point simulation...
- 05/11/2012 11:06:16 PM
424 Views
what? directly vote for president? COMMUNISM!
- 05/11/2012 06:01:00 PM
279 Views
Seems like everything is communism these days, even/especially things that are not.
- 05/11/2012 06:56:55 PM
255 Views
A simple solution: proportional allocation of electors from each state with 15 votes or more.
- 05/11/2012 08:34:08 PM
266 Views
I prefer 1 EV per house district, with 2 EVs going to state winners
- 05/11/2012 08:40:50 PM
366 Views
it would certainly make the races more interesting.....
- 05/11/2012 09:09:24 PM
220 Views
If not for gerrymandering I would consider this the ideal solution.
- 05/11/2012 09:26:01 PM
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But in that system, the small states would be bypassed completely
- 05/11/2012 09:55:49 PM
273 Views
You mean even more than they already are (outside of the NH primaries)?
- 05/11/2012 11:17:14 PM
231 Views
Me too actually, but only with computerized semi-random redistricting *NM*
- 06/11/2012 05:38:25 AM
94 Views
why would there need to be a nation-wide recount? don't the states keep their own tallies?
- 05/11/2012 09:08:04 PM
268 Views
What if none of the states were close enough for a recount, but the country as a whole was?
- 05/11/2012 09:23:33 PM
230 Views
i suppose at that point the Supreme Court would have every justification to hear the case....
- 06/11/2012 06:07:06 PM
336 Views
What Legolas said; if we did it by national popular vote, recounts would need to be national.
- 05/11/2012 09:34:30 PM
328 Views
I like that idea, though I have long felt Larrys idea of using Congressional Districts is better.
- 05/11/2012 09:22:49 PM
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