h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's a long time since I first read this entry and it appears to have changed a lot since then - for the worse, in my opinion. It has grown to be confused and confusing.

I don't understand the electoral college system, and this entry only makes me more confused about it.

- You need to state early on that it is the choice of President and Vice President that is being talked about. The Electoral College doesn't choose the whole house of representatives, does it?

- Secondly, I think you need to make it clear that there are two problems with the college system, if I understand it at all:

1. the minor one that the voters don't have to follow the way the public voted (give examples of when they did they went about popular vote;

2. the big one that if 51% of the popular vote goes to one candidate, all the electoral college votes are given to that candidate, which grossly skews the results;

At present, you say there is one problem with the system, and describe problem 1 above, then go on to say that the system is fundamentally flawed. I stopped reading at that point as I was confused.

I think a major overhaul is needed.

I agree that a major overhaul is warrented but let me reiterate this is not an article about the creation of the presidency, about the qualifications needed to be president or about the creation of the Electoral college. This is an article about reforming the Electoral College. I just found out that the first time a President took office on January 20th was 75 years ago. I also found out that there was at least one instance where the constitution was ammended to reform the electoral College. this should have been known months ago but I overlooked it and nobody informed me of the error.

>>This is an article about reforming the Electoral College

Then you need to start by explaining what an Electoral College is and what it does. Then tell us what is wrong with it and why it should be reformed. Finally tell us proposals for reforming it and whether these are likely to succeed or whether it is one of those things that everybody knows is wrong but will never be changed, like counting in base 10 or the uneven lengths of our months.

I thought I had done just that

>>what an Electoral College is and what it does

You don't tell us this.

>>what is wrong with it and why it should be reformed

You say this but it is all over the place, and you have conflicting statements. Some of your explanations of why the College system was chosen over a Direct Vote (which you also don't explain) seem to conflict with your explanations of what is wrong with the College system. (In other words, what is wrong with it is that it does exactly what it was designed to do.)

>>proposals for reforming it

When you've got the first parts sorted, then we can look at these.

Deleted ?!?

Oh come on, Shagbark! There was a lot of good stuff in this. It just needed to be sorted out. Don't delete it on my account. I'm just one voice among many. You can always undelete it again.

well there goes another one

Have I scared him away?

I think I'll take a little rest from Peer Review and leave it to the rest of you to break the news to people that their entries need a lot of work.

personally I said at the beinging, it was far too datable to go in, but nobody bothered with tjm's view

Gnomon we need you !!!

Anyway, telling epopel that their entries need work is one thing, its just after x knows how many months in PR people might get an idea where their entry stands

C'mon, Gnomon, don't go away! Shagbark made the decision. You didn't press the 'delete entry' button; presumably he had a good reason to delete it, if that's what he wanted to do. He can always undelete it, or write it over from scratch.

C'mon folks, this Entry was not ready yet. And there was a lot of work to do. Gnomon had a point.

Shagbark, on the other hand, invested a lot of work in this Entry, which was well researched and all... It is obviously disappointing to hear people say that it's not nearly finished, or that it got worse...

But c'mon folks! Let's not get too emotional. Gnomon's comments, suggestions and nitpicking are not for nothing and usually lead to better Entries - but as he said, he's just one voice (a nagging one sometimes ). Shagbark, don't be so disappointed...

HELL

BTW: I think shagbark unsubscribed from this thread.

I'm going to unsubscribe too.

me too... unsubscribing

Ok, ditto...