Talk:Electoral college

I understand why someone might want to put Nader's vote totals on the page. I myself am a Libertarian, and would like to place my parties vote totals on the page as well. But these totals are not useful for the discussion, because:

a) No one (I've heard from) disputes that Nader's supporters (Left) would overwhelmingly vote for Gore (Center-Left) if Nader wasn't in the game. This would be useful if the problem was that Gore didn't win the majority of votes, and Nader swung the election in this matter. But that isn't the problem at all, Gore won the majority of votes with or without Nader.

b) Nader didn't receive *ANY* electoral college votes. No single elector defections (ala the Libertarian Party in 1972), or enough electors to go to a second round (as in some elections in the far past - can't remember right now, not enough coffee). So inserting him in the entry is pointless on this level as well.

Now, I think it would be useful if someone could come up with some figures that would show how many states or counties Nader swung for Bush by drawing votes away from Gore. Absent this info, I think the reference should be deleted.

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No fair! <GRIN>

"Supporters feel the intent of the college is to favour a candidate who may have minority support overall but whose appeal is more broadly distributed across the nation, rather than one who is favoured by a minority of regions or only by voters in large cities. "

This is incorrect in its presentation. Both Al Gore and George Bush failed to win a majority of votes in the election. While supporters (of which I am one), do feel that the purpose is to possibly favor a minority candidate with broadly distributed appeal, the implication is unfavorable - though technically correct (both Gore & Bush were in the minority).

Can someone clarify this - I think I'm too partisan about to be fair myself!