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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.
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Could Ohio Kill the Electoral College? - 05/11/2012 04:43:48 PM 703 Views
what? directly vote for president? COMMUNISM! - 05/11/2012 06:01:00 PM 280 Views
Um - 05/11/2012 06:04:12 PM 258 Views
Ugh. - 05/11/2012 07:23:37 PM 365 Views
It is an appallingly large number. - 05/11/2012 07:40:47 PM 258 Views
A simple solution: proportional allocation of electors from each state with 15 votes or more. - 05/11/2012 08:34:08 PM 267 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 269 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 231 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 392 Views
So you undermined your own argument from the start... - 05/11/2012 10:01:07 PM 242 Views
i've always favored district lines by ZIP code myself - 05/11/2012 10:05:59 PM 321 Views
Um... WHAT? Republicans have 9/13 CDs in NC. - 12/11/2012 07:52:16 PM 362 Views
But why do people bleive big states need more power? - 06/11/2012 06:31:22 PM 275 Views
I was not asked but will answer anyway: They do not. - 12/11/2012 07:45:26 PM 389 Views

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