Qaisar Shareef is the author of When Tribesmen Came Calling: Building an Enduring American Business in Pakistan, published by Blue Ear Books. His past columns in the Pakistani national English-language newspaper The News, explaining American politics and society to readers in Pakistan, are archived
Thanks for this clear-eyed assessment of the current domestic political landscape, Qaisar. I share your feeling that our antiquated Electoral College system has to go, since the grossly disproportional electoral clout of some of our least-populous states is unfair in the extreme. Here in Washington State, we've long realized to our chagrin that our votes basically don't count in national elections, though happily we did make a difference in one U.S. House race this year.
Dennis thank you for your comment. Indeed our system of electing the president is now in a place where it can grossly misrepresent the will of the electorate. While there has been a lot of focus on the over proportionate representation of smaller states, I think the “winner take all” system of assigning Electoral College delegates is a bigger culprit. Should Electoral College votes be distributed in rough proportion to the popular vote in each state, candidates would be forced to vie for every vote in each state. And, the “winner take all” set up I don’t think is stipulated in the Constitution.
Thanks for this clear-eyed assessment of the current domestic political landscape, Qaisar. I share your feeling that our antiquated Electoral College system has to go, since the grossly disproportional electoral clout of some of our least-populous states is unfair in the extreme. Here in Washington State, we've long realized to our chagrin that our votes basically don't count in national elections, though happily we did make a difference in one U.S. House race this year.
Dennis thank you for your comment. Indeed our system of electing the president is now in a place where it can grossly misrepresent the will of the electorate. While there has been a lot of focus on the over proportionate representation of smaller states, I think the “winner take all” system of assigning Electoral College delegates is a bigger culprit. Should Electoral College votes be distributed in rough proportion to the popular vote in each state, candidates would be forced to vie for every vote in each state. And, the “winner take all” set up I don’t think is stipulated in the Constitution.