[awpitt (Premo)]

Originally Posted by This_person

I agree with all you're saying here. I actually think it was a bad idea to go away from states legislatures picking the senators. There was a real fear of recall for a rogue senator. I agree we're at a higher technological stage, but I'm not sure people use that to educate themselves on candidates. Ask the next 20 people you run into who the sec of state, or president pro tempore of the senate, or speaker of the house is. I think you'll be sadly surprised at the answers you receive.

I like the electoral college, but I like even better allocating those votes in some representative breakdown of how the state actually voted.

You’re definitely right about folks being clueless about current office holders. A few years ago, I was a Cub Scout leader and I had the boys fill in the names of the states on a blank map of the US. They all did pretty well. Then, I took that same map to work and challenged co-workers to fill in the states. I was amazed at how few people could get more than half of the states correct.