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What are the benefits to the US Electoral College system? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Boldizzle@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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So I'm a New Zealander and I have a pretty good idea on how the electoral college system works but it honestly sounds like something that can be easily corrupted and it feels like it renders the popular vote absolutely useless unless I'm totally missing something obvious?

So yeah if someone could explain to me what the benefits of such a system are, that would be awesome.

Edit - Thanks for the replies so far, already learning a lot!

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[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It helps those with power keep it. Benefits to everyone else, that it may have had, have been eroded by time, demographics, and or technology.

[–] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 year ago

When the definition of "everyone else" excluded people without property, women, and minorities, it served its purpose quite well. In fact it continues to serve the purpose of overrepresenting property owning white men. Not as well as back in the 1800s, mind you.