At 11:25 AM 11/23/2000, Dan Koenig wrote:

Hi Dan,

>The electoral college may have its drawbacks, but consider two of its
>strengths.  One is that it requires presidential candidates to pay
>attention to all states rather than only the most populous states.

This isn't true.  Candidates need not pay attention to safe
electorates.  We have the same problem here - the safe electorates get
pretty much ignored - it's assumed they'll go to the on of the
Labor/Liberal/National Parties, so why campaign?

>   If
>it were a national popular vote in the U.S., how much attention would
>sparsely populated states such as New Hampshire or Iowa receive?

Should a sparsely populated area receive the same amount of attention in
terms of time and funding promises as a state with ten times its population?

Alister

"I simply do not agree that the state, or any other system of
organized power and violence, should have the authority to
determine what people think or say. If the state is granted the
power to shut me up, my counter argument is not that what I am
saying might be valuable. That would be a contemptible position,
in my view."  --> Noam Chomsky