Jseal,

Thanks for explaining the process to me. It seems apparrent to me that it has a glaring flaw. The people who vote for the losing candidate in each state get completely disenfranchised. In my opinion, the will of the people would be fully implemented if the states put in their votes on a proportional basis according to the votes received by the candidates. A narrow win in a state with a lot of electoral votes could sway the election and a candidate with less than a majority of the total vote could win, a la George W.

The Australian senate is elected on proportional representation as it is made up of 12 senators from each state plus 1 from the Australian Capital Territory (our Washington DC equivalent) and the Northern Territory.

Our house of reps are elected using a preference system till one candidate gets over 50% of the votes cast.