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Comment by WorldMaker | Hacker News Reader

It seems even more dumb that in the event of a tie the House of Representatives is supposed to vote one vote per state as if it were a dumber Senate. The compromises that led to that setup are weird mistakes. I guess it is good that it is a rare event when the Electoral College ties.

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Why is it dumb? The House of Representatives is supposed to proportionally represent the constituencies of the various states. The Senate exists to represent the state legislatures - though the 17th amendment changed that(and I personally believe it should be repealed).

It makes sense to me, as the House choosing the President is still a somewhat representation of the will of the people. It's also very similar to Westminster-styled parliamentary democracies choose their Prime Ministers.

How does that justify one vote per state? Wouldn't one vote per representative represent the will of the people better?

Because the constitution specifies that the several States (not the people) shall elect the president.

Just make the vote of each state proportional to the number of people who voted in that state.

Or change the Constitution.

The electoral college is as much of a mess as it is in part because it already includes the proportional ratios of the House into consideration (and as pointed out in related threads, a large reason why it would ever tie in the first place, and isn't just some odd number derived from the number of states). Surely in the case of an EC tie, leaving the House to vote as the House, proportionately representative, is no less a representation of the votes of the states than the electoral college itself at that point?

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