Richard Posner on the Electoral College

Richard Posner offers a defense of the Electoral College in Slate. While acknowledging the faults of the barbarous relic, Judge Posner makes a solid point on demographics and geography. The Electoral College discourages candidates from campaigning in 'safe' states, forcing them to win over skeptical swing-state voters. I find this idea especially persuasive given the rise of monolithic 'movement conservatism.' It's not hard to imagine a candidate such as Senator Santorum spending all of his time working his base up into a thorough lather, while never venturing north of Louisville or west of Amarillo.

I disagree with Judge Posner's assertion that swing-state voters are the best voters. Here I feel he wades into dangerous voter analysis territory. This tracks with his admitted ambivalence to serious democracy, but no one's perfect, as they say.