The Electoral College makes most Americans powerless In presidential elections

Excellent perspective and dead on analysis. Thanks.

Gentlemen, the United States was not founded as a democracy - for many good reasons. Democracy, as you can see in Egypt, Libya, Iran 1979, Gaza, Russia 1917, is the Rule and Tyranny of the Mob. America's founders warned against the evils of Democracy and they were right back then as they would have been right about it today.

The Electoral College system is imperfect this year, far more than it was imperfect for the Bush - Gore years. And the reason is as follows:

We can see that a minority group in Cleveland, Ohio, can win the presidency for themselves. They are 12% of the US population, as against the vast majority of the American People's wishes, those who comprise 70% of Americans who are against Obamacare and Obamanomics (sitting at home jobless is the proof) and whatever bad storm that brought that evil ideology upon us all.

The ideology that America's parasite society takes priority over America's productive and inventive society that provides the drive, impetus, energy and jobs that made this great nation of ours what it has become.

The idea that the productive owe something to the parasite. The idea that charity should be FORCED, as opposed to VOLUNTARY. The idea that we should go beyond a hand up to a permanent hand out. The idea that it is fine for a president and his Secretary of State, UN ambassador and presidential spokesmen to lie blatantly for weeks about the incident that resulted in the death of Americans abroad.

As the SUPER APP, the apps on your iPhones for example, is DELETED from your desktops-phones, foreign nations, starting decades ago with Japan, now others like China and India, have adopted the SUPER APPs we had developed and then deleted and are showing the massive economic growth and the enrichment of all classes of its citizens.

Other nations adopted the economic system and business ideas we had developed that made America the richest and most powerful nation in history and America has adopted the economic systems and business of nations that are failed states. And we did it to advance the failed ideologies I cite above.

America's free economic ideology is creating prosperity in the poorest of nations while Obama's ideology misrepresented to the people is causing more and more poverty, food stamps, and joblessness. Don't for a moment believe the "good numbers" given out by Obama's government to secure for himself the next four years at the cost of $6 trillion crushing debt. Before the end of the year you will fully know the truth of the disaster that is Obama. Business has been reporting poor figures and the markets are the advance warning of the reality of the Obama Magic Tricks.

With Obama and the Evil Ideology of Equality of Results as opposed to the Equality of Opportunity guaranteed by the Founder's writing and thinking, we are heading the wrong way. Evidence needed? OK.

Winston Churchill, not a small mind, said: No matter how beautiful the strategy, occasionally we might want to look at the results.

Thank you Mr Burton. I would really love to be able to vote in the election and know that it means something, but my only votes that make a difference will be the local and state items.

Your vote means more than you think. You are making a statement and revealing yourself by your beliefs and vote, and this would be even more significant should Mitt Romney become our president.

I'm definitely not encouraging people to not vote. I simply want everyone's vote for the president to be equal. With the current system, a voter in Texas is less valuable than a voter in Vermont, which is why the candidates are spending all of their time and money in those 11 states. That's not right. We should all count towards the outcome.

Most people never looked in a dictionary or encyclopedia to see the real definition of the word democracy____ If they ever do, will realize that the actual glorious USA political system is far from having something to do with real democracy.

An argument could be made that a true democracy would be impractical in a country the size of the US, but a different argument could be made that the internet would actually allow a true democracy to work. We'll never know in our lifetimes.

JD,

There will never be a perfect political system.

As Churchill would say "democracy is the worst political system ever known to man; except for everything else we have tried".

I know your frustration, but the electoral system is designed not by an outdated model. It is intended to make sure smaller states can protect their interest and not be railroaded by mega states. There is actual wisdom in the design though not everyone can appreciate it.

I don't completely disagree with you; there are merits. Still, the rights of the states should not supersede the rights of the individuals. A vote from someone in Oklahoma should hold just as much weight as a vote from someone in Ohio, but that's not the case with the electoral college. There's nothing that the democrats could possibly do in Oklahoma to win the state for Obama, so why even try? The winner-take-all format means that it doesn't matter whether Rommney wins Oklahoma 51-49 or if he wins it 71-29 - either way it's the same. As a result, the 11 swing states have too much power and people living in other states are unimportant to the outcome.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC), without needing to amend the Constitution.

Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.

When the bill is enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.

The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions possessing 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.

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Surprising stats on California, JD. In the last presidential election, only around 52% of eligible California voters bothered to cast a ballot. In the electoral college, California votes get weighted better than the national average, with a mediocre turnout. Those in California who think Cleveland controls the election had better look harder in their own neighborhoods. Check the US Census stats for yourself, then vote!