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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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[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your listed positives of the electoral college seem like just more negatives, but with honey on top.

[–] Pattern@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

Yep. And the kicker is that, with Trump, it failed at its core function of keeping incompetent people out of the presidency. So given that I think Americans are rightly wondering what the purpose of the institution even is.