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Re: Math and the electoral college's virtue
Posted:
Nov 11, 2000 11:35 AM
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On Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:18:11 GMT, Chip Eastham
<chip_eastham@my-deja.com> wrote:
>
>
>Check out this nontechnical discussion of a mathematical analysis of
>the democratic virtue of the Electoral College in choosing the U.S.
>Presidents:
He defines a voter's "power" as the probability that that vote
will decide the election. I don't see that this is all that
well-defined, but more to the point I don't see why we should
accept that it's a good thing! Why should we _want_ to
maximize the probability that an individual's vote will
determine the election???
Seems like a _bad_ idea to me. Right now it appears
that the election may well be decided by a very small number
of votes in a few counties in Florida. I don't think that anyone
thinks this is desirable. And if it were a straight popular
vote it would not be so.
Curious. Say you're living in a state that's overwhelmingly
for candidate XXX and you favor candidate A. Your vote has
essentially no effect under the current system - under a straight
popular vote it would have the same effect as everyone else's.
Maximizing voter's "power" is a good thing, but equating this
"power" with the probability that the vote will decide the
election is absurd. The electoral system acts to _minimize_ the
power of a lot of voters.
>http://www.avagara.com/e_c/reference/00012001.htm
>
>Regards,
>Chip
>
>
>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
>Before you buy.
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