Henderson said:
Now, y'see, I'm somewhat torn on this issue....
On the one hand, I know
why the Electoral College was set up in the first place. It was esablished to act as a "buffer" between the power imbalance between the large and small states. In fact, the founding American government had quite a bit of debate and argumentation about this very issue.
For example, if we were today to remove the Electoral College, then Florida, Texas, and California would be even
more powerful (politically speaking) than they are now. And smaller states such as Maine and Rhode Island would become even
more of a tiny blip on the radar than they are right now.
The larger states wanted straight-up population votes. The smaller states wanted equal representation from all the states. Our founding government opted for a compromise with the Electoral College, and I think it is a perfectly reasonable compromise.
At the same time, as others have often pointed out, there is always the danger that the College can simply thumb their noses at the populace and vote however the hell they damn well choose. As such, the College could be argued to be an elitist oligarchy that circumvents the "will of the people". I also believe that to be a perfectly reasonable concern on the part of many voters.
But, what to do? What to do?