For those calling for the abolishment of the electoral college, here is one simple question.

[moriah]

110. I really don't think anyone who created the EC envisioned the system we have currently.

I've wanted Instant Runoff Voting for awhile. Even if it might have still resulted in Trump in 2016 and GHWB or Perot in 1992, Gore would have won Florida in 2000.

But the system we have is broken. Democrats can't fully ally with smaller, more Progressive parties and devise solutions together because when election time comes, we're stuck with a system where a vote for the more progressive candidate is a vote for the asshole you hate not being cancelled out.

Republicans have been split for a long time and under Instant Runoff, we might see the Libertarian branch (less emphasis on policing what people can't and can't do and trying their damndest to pay no taxes for anything) become dominant. If the Democratic Party changes under IRV, it will be to move over to the left both fiscally and socially. If we could fight less about morals policing and more about how to balance a budget, it would be a welcome change. They are far more fragmented than we are.

I am a proud Democrat, but I have no issues with the Green Party building on the local level. I think we could make a good coalition if it weren't for the competitive nature of voting in this country, where people have to strategically vote instead of vote their conscience, we could.

It's still possible we might have lost if everyone who voted for Stein had been able to have their vote shifted to Clinton, or even if the Johnson voters pushed Trump over the edge in the popular vote. And yes, I'd be okay with the outcomes. Maine is piloting instant runoff. We'll see how it goes.

If we wanted to try something creative but in the spirit of the Founding Father's idea of balancing population and individual states in representation, make the electors representing each state Senator go to the main winner of the state, and for states with only one district to also have their one vote representing their Rep go to the overall winner, but have the electors officially vote for a distribution based on percentage in each state.

I'd like to calculate how that would have affected multiple elections, but if something would make votes count no matter where you lived, I think we'd see higher turnout. And if people could vote their conscience instead of their fears, we could see a change in our political tone. Fear is a terrible reason to vote, and the "us vs them" mentality in our dialogue may be necessary given our current President-Elect, but we should work to reform the system so a handful of states don't decide our elections.