“In politics stupidity is not a handicap.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
It has become popular of late for pontificating politicians (and others) to decry and condemn our uniquely American Electoral College system. Every four years, as the presidential election approaches, citizens are assaulted with continuing arguments from low IQ political pundits who insist that the Electoral College is outdated. They argue that we need to opt for a strictly popular vote when we elect our next president. I would argue that this is at the least misguided, at worst evidence of a parasitic mind. Why does the Electoral College matter? Let me explain…
Rather than holding one national presidential election every four years, in essence, we have 50 individual state elections (plus one extra for the District of Columbia). Each state holds its own election for president. As a group, the people in Texas get to decide on who they want for president. It is the same for the folks in Kansas and Oklahoma and California and Vermont. States differ. We have a diverse population. The priorities and concerns of those in the urban Northeast or coastal California may be different than those in the Midwest or the deep South. Without the Electoral College, states with smaller populations like Wyoming, Vermont, and Alaska would have no voice when we elect our president. Larger states like Texas, New York, and California could control elections. The Electoral College was instituted so that every state, and every voter in every state, matters. That is the simple answer.
Our Founding Fathers intentionally designed the American government to prevent a tyrannical minority from controlling the majority. We have three branches of government with baked in checks and balances. There is division of power between the federal and state governments, constitutional limits on the government’s power, and a differing composition of representatives in Congress. And we have the ingenious Electoral College.
Many bow-tie wearing comb-over politicians in both parties
are working hard these days to eliminate these safeguards. They are trying to create a system where the bare majority can control political power. As such, the Electoral College is a specific target for their diabolical plans.
The superb U.S. Constitution outlines our election process. There are two phases to this plan. The first is our popular election that takes place every four years in November. The second phase follows in December. The president is elected by the members of the Electoral College. Each state has electors equal to the number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives (this number is determined by population). Currently there are 538 electors. After the election, these electors meet and cast their votes for the candidate who has won the majority of their state’s votes. All but two states have a “winner take all” electoral vote system. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions and allocate their electors proportionally. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election.
The primary objection to the Electoral College process arises from the fact that a candidate for president can still win the election despite losing the “popular vote.” This has happened five times in U.S. History, including during the elections in 2000 and 2016. Many scream that this is some kind of grave injustice, but it is not. Instead of one big popular vote election, we have 50 semi-sovereign states, each electing their winner. In this way, every voter matters, and every vote counts. And all the states are represented. Without the Electoral College, the votes of citizens in Wyoming and other small states would never matter.
There is one other factor in favor of the Electoral College that should be mentioned (and this is perhaps one reason why so many are fighting to abolish it). The Electoral College system makes it much harder to steal an election. To affect a presidential election outcome, votes must be stolen in the right state. With so many states, this is hard to predict and hard to do. Without the Electoral College, any vote stolen in any precinct in the country could affect the national outcome.
The country artist Jason Aldean has a great song titled Fly Over States. You should listen to it. Why does the Electoral College matter? The Electoral College matters because it gives those of us in the fly over states a voice in our presidential elections. Our founding fathers knew what they were doing. Thank God for their wisdom…
© 2024 Jody Dyer
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