Here's a little known tidbit: The electoral college originated because the founding fathers didn't trust the American public to choose their leader (they were, to say the least, not big fans of direct democracy). This was a problem in the 1700's because people were vastly uninformed and had no way to get information, aside from a few papers with low distribution (and let's not forget the low literacy rate of the American public back then)
The problem is that it isn't relevant anymore. With widespread mass media and a much higher literacy rate, Americans can be well-informed if they want to be, and if they pick the wrong candidate for the job it's because of poor judgement, not lack of information.
The method I favor is the instant runoff system, which is used in many primaries as well as (correct me if I'm wrong) some Canadian elections. It allows you to vote your conscience the first time around and vote for the lesser of two evils the second time around.
Inflammatory statement time: considering the number of people who voted for Bush in 2000 (almost 50% of the country and that's a FACT, not even taking Florida into consideration), perhaps the American public SHOULDN'T be trusted to elect a president. I favor a system wherein I and the members of my immediate family decide who the president will be.
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See my website, Common Sense:
www.ThoseDamnLiberals.org
I'm an atheist/moralist.
My parents were hippies. Both my grandfathers were Mennonite conscientious objectors in WWII. It's complicated.