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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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[–] juliebean@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the main 'advantage' i believe is that it allows non-voting people to lend weight to the votes of those who do vote. it allows states to disenfranchise voters, without that impacting their state's influence on national politics. it also allows smaller states a larger proportional influence than their population would make reasonable.

personally, i don't see those as advantages, but i'm not some wealthy slave owner from the 1700s.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 5 points 1 year ago

Don't forget the 18 people from Wyoming who really enjoy it too, they get to be counted the same as hundreds of thousands of new yorkers