This is absurd, but it could actually happen under our system. Think about it before you scoff. Then scoff. Then get very, very scared.
The 2000 Census shows that 50% of our population lives in the top 9 states. The math works out such that only the top 11 states are needed for an electoral majority. The numbers are set, not to be changed until 2010.
Then, out of the shadows of October 2008, come the Nuclear Terrorists. They level every major city in America, depleting the population of the top states to almost nothing, leaving intact the rural heartland. There are now five people in California—the Nuclear Terrorists themselves, who move in after land prices drop. Five Nuclear Terrorists move into each of the top 11 states. But even though there are only 55 of them, these Nuclear Terrorists control an electoral college majority.
It turns out that two in each state vote for Barack Obama and the rest vote for John McCain because they like his jowls. Eleven Nuclear Terrorists override the will of an entire people (and some of their own loathsome kind.) BUT–if only we had used the popular vote, they only would have added eleven votes to McCain’s cause, and Obama would still win in an inevitable landslide of accolades.
I think what I’m trying to say is,
