Dustin-265090 wrote:

"... I remember a statement in the papers that indicates that an overbearing majority could lead to a disastrous situation. However, electoral college actually makes this problem worse in that greater population in any one state swings the electoral vote with great power."

With a nationally popular vote, it wouldn't matter how greatly populous any given state happens to be if the rest of the nation votes a different way, unless the state is *so* populous that the majority of Americans happen to live there. *That* is the concept of "an overbearing majority" that you're talking about, and the fact that an electoral college can give a state a greater effect on the vote like you say is precisely what mitigates this. I have absolutely no idea why you conclude that this "makes this problem worse," since it seems to me that it, in fact, lessens it instead.

Is the use of an electoral college perfect? No; the election results in 2000 should be enough evidence of that. The federalists, however, did not like the idea of a direct democracy for reasons we've already discussed, and neither do I.

PrimeSoup, although I don't have the time right now to find the specific Federalist papers that refer to electoral college and the disdain by several parties of it, I am happy to find them later (it's been a few years).

Also, while others do not agree with me on this...electoral college was not the preferred method of election and was only settled upon after the disastrous Virginia Plan and based on the two compromises.

**Please note that I haven't reviewed the essays for years so I may be getting something wrong and I'd be happy to make my apologies if that is the case**

However, I remember a statement in the papers that indicates that an overbearing majority could lead to a disastrous situation. However, electoral college actually makes this problem worse in that greater population in any one state swings the electoral vote with great power. Furthermore, since the states decide how electoral votes are awarded, a state that does not give all electoral votes to a single candidate based on popular vote is inherently weaker these days than one like California who swings all votes to the winner of the state contest.