• Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    It wouldn’t require it. But it makes less than no sense to ditch it while we are still a 50 state union. The entire point of the United States is that you can choose a state to live in with an independent regional government that governs the place where you and your family live and work. A place where you have more control as a voter in how it’s run. Then you have a federal government which can when institute needed laws that apply to every state, which is a lot of power over the state you live in. Thus you want each independent state to have a vote in who’s running the country.

    To get rid of the electoral college would mean handing over control of the entire federal government, a government that has the power to overrule laws in your state, to effectively four or five states.

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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      8 months ago

      But that’s already the case? Swing states get to decide national policy far more than other states. Giving proportional representation would at least ensure that the states with a bigger voice have more citizens. Citizens in small states would still have an equal voice, unlike the current system.

      I think universal equality in political power is far more compatible with federalism than the current system.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It is not already the case. Without an electoral college, a single voter in North Dakota has effectively no voice at all. In fact, the states entire population would mean little more than a rounding error. With no electoral college the cumulative voting power of the entire state is 0.23%. With the electoral college they’re bumped up to over 1%

        Swing states get to decide national policy far more than other states

        …no? A swing state is just a state that that has enough voters from each major party that they could go either way. They don’t have any more power than any other state.