Raquel,

Quote
I would say that direct popular vote would work better And don't say that it wouldn't work because larger states would always "choose" the president because that's not true. Not everyone in the same state would vote for the same person/party. A democrat state still would have independents (who can vote either way) and republicans specially the way sociaty is right now where people move from one state to the other.
True. But the electoral college is also useful in making the candidates try to appeal to the largest cross-section of people. The US is very large and very diverse -- Massachusetts and Mississippi don't have very much in common, for instance. When candidates have to win states and not just individual voters, they have to try to woo voters in both Mass. and Miss., instead of appealling solely to, say, big city dwellers and ignoring the rural parts of the country. That's the theory, anyway.

Caucuses...yeah, those are weird. And definitely not compatible with the secret vote idea. I think it's the state political parties that are in control of how those things are arranged, though.

In general, no matter what the system is, I'd be very cautious about changing it. Changes always bring unforeseen consequences. Although I'm open to looking at how the primaries/caucuses are scheduled, since my state is always too late in the process to matter. I've heard a proposal to organize the country into "regions" and each election cycle, one of the states in each region would have the earliest voting, with it rotating on each cycle. Get Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina out of the spotlight, and spread the influence around. So I'd be (cautiously, of course) interested in seeing that arranged. It'd be really tough to get everyone to agree, I think, and like I said, a lot of this is at the discretion of the state parties. The national party has some influence but states can challenge that. Like Florida & Michigan this year. As it stands, since those states had earlier primaries than the national party wanted, none of their delegates will count at the convention. But is it fair to disenfranchise two whole states' worth of voters? There's already a movement to get those delegates "seated" -- to make their votes count. It'll be interesting to watch.

Actually, I'm getting kind of excited. With Hilary & Obama running so neck-and-neck, they might have to actually campaign in NC! We never get that...

PJ

"You told me you weren't like other men," she said, shaking her head at him when the storm of laughter had passed.
He grinned at her - a goofy, Clark Kent kind of a grin. "I have a gift for understatement."
"You can say that again," she told him.
"I have a...."
"Oh, shut up."

--Stardust, Caroline K