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The American Founding Fathers made such a provision to avoid too much attention being showered on populous states while ignoring the rest. More populous the state, more the number of electoral votes a state has e.g. California has 55, Texas has 34, and New York has 31. But at the same time, there is an adverse effect on clearly partisan states where a certain candidate enjoys a clear majority. California and New York votes Democrat almost every time and Texas and Alaska votes Republican. Candidates thus considering campaigning in these states as futile because the losing candidate doesn’t consider it worthwhile investing time to close the gap and the winning candidate takes that state for granted. This focuses all the attention on the so-called battleground states where the mandate is fractured and the lead is still within the margin of error. Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have got more than their share of attention. If you haven’t seen any campaign ads in your state, chances are that your state’s mind is already made up but if you are being inundated with ads and campaign stops, then your state is still up for grabs (Georgia is gonna vote for George, duh! followed quickly by damn!). Too much attention is still being showered on certain states and the idea of “equal attention” is defeated.
Colorado is trying to split its electoral votes. Currently it holds 9 votes and if an amendment passes in the state legislature on November 2nd, the votes might be split 5-4. Political analysts believe that this will undermine Colorado’s influence as a potential battleground state. But Colorado believes that this will result in a ripple effect, leading other states to follow suit. If that happens, candidates will have to pay equal attention to all states and tour the country like crazy fighting for each vote instead of concentrating on the ten-plus “up for grabs” states. Maybe even a Rath Yatra by Bush might be in the offing, he might call it a Crusade instead, complete with crucifix-toting evangelicals.
Earlier, I preferred the American Presidential system over India’s parliamentary system. But now I am not sure, especially after the last election fiasco that put Dubya in office. The Electoral College unfairly skews the balance in favor of undecided voters. It takes a serious blow to convince an erstwhile Democrat state to vote Republican. But then again, if the Electoral College is abolished, candidates will focus on heavily populated states and states with smaller vote count will get regularly ignored. In India, each candidate campaigns for his or her own sake and hence the election fever is almost uniformly spread. But then again that also leads to regional parties, independents and ultimately a hung parliament or assembly, handing untold power to non-descript and previously unknown parties or individuals.
All said and done, someone is bound to get ignored. In an age of opinion polls, voting patterns, and election prediction models, campaigns are bound to focus on the most fickle voter instead of spreading their net wide. But voters are an unpredictable lot. If you don’t believe that, ask Pramod Mahajan.
PS. That concludes my series on voting issues. Although there are tons out there, like gerrymandering, dissuading voters from turning up at the polls, voting fraud, etc, we rather look forward to the Election Day on a positive note.
by Patrix | on Wednesday, October 27th, 2004 at 11:05 pm | 
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October 28th, 2004 at 12:31 am reply
Yup
October 28th, 2004 at 1:11 am reply
Smiley - Thank god it wasn’t Gup (shut up!)
October 28th, 2004 at 3:27 am reply
phew…
at last! ;)
October 28th, 2004 at 9:32 am reply
I second Rash ! Although I did enjoy sticking my nose in and arguing away to glory :-P
Btw, this is what I conclude from your series and my own observations : politics sucks. Everywhere. Its a murky messy muddy arena. But we gotta keep a watch on it. Gotta make sure that mess doesnt muck up society.
That’s all folks.
October 28th, 2004 at 9:49 am reply
I don’t think the electoral college system should be abolished. I think all states should split their electoral votes. I’ve never understood why they haven’t always done that.
October 28th, 2004 at 10:49 am reply
Rash - That hurt. :(
Ash - Et tu Brutus, I thought you enjoyed all the arguing…society is politics..be it a country or a joint family.
Sabra - That would the same as popular vote but frankly yeah I too don’t know whatz keeping them from splitting the votes.