The Electoral College (An Election Year Rant)

In what seems to be the norm for a general election year, opponents of the Electoral College are again hyping how unfair it is and how it needs to be eliminated. This horrible relic of electing the President/Vice President from the founding of our nation was put in place as a balance between population centers and rural areas. Naturally, the folks in charge of the population centers are the ones who are calling for its elimination. 

As you probably suspect, this is coming from the port side of aisle, the same ones who want to pack the United States Supreme Court with five new Democrat appointed Justices to ‘eliminate politics in the Court’ as well as impose term limits on the Justices, all because they don’t like their rulings. While the Democrat candidates for President and Vice President have both advocated for this, their campaigns have been forced to walk back their stance in the face of strong opposition. But that hasn’t stopped the rest of the political/pundit/sycophant crew from keeping it in the press. 

Why do we have the Electoral College? The Founders of our country studied the history of nations around the world and designed our government so as not to fall into the same trap as so many others had. In short, the Electoral College was put in place to elect the President/Vice President by our Founders who were afraid of democracy, hence why our country is a Republic not a pure Democracy. They were concerned about “the tyranny of the majority” and created the Electoral College to preserve “the sense of the people”. 

The number of electoral votes a state has equals its number of Senators (2) plus its number of Representatives in the House of Representatives. With this system, each state is guaranteed a minimum of three electoral votes. 538 electors chosen by their states award all their votes according to the winner of the popular vote in their own state, except Maine and Nebraska who have a slightly different system.  

The Founders recognized there needed to be a balance between the densely populated urban areas and the more sparsely populated rural ones.  Today, urban areas are predominately liberal/Democrat and rural areas tend to be conservative/Republican. With a direct, popular vote, a handful of urban areas in our country would determine the President in every single election. 

As with every election loss, we saw a renewed call to abolish the Electoral College following the Democrat candidate’s loss in the 2016 elections. Claims that the election was “stolen” and the “will of the people” was ignored because the candidate with the most votes didn’t win the most votes from the Electoral College. 

Attempts to do away with the Electoral College have all failed in Congress as it is recognized for what it is, a power grab from one side that would eliminate the voice of rural America. 

Not to be outdone, an alternate attack was created called The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). It is an attempt to nullify the Electoral College without actually abolishing it. Participating states would award their Electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who won the popular vote in that individual state. 

Following the 2016 elections, there were increased drives across the country that were being courted to join the Compact. Popular themes included “one person one vote” and “make your vote count”.  People were promised that politicians would be forced to campaign for votes in every state not just the most populous areas. Of course, that’s not true. Outright lies such as “This is patently undemocratic and undermines confidence in the people that we are truly a democracy” are common. 

Sadly, my home state of Maine bought into this lunacy in 2024 with its liberal controlled legislature and joined the NPVIC, bringing the total committed electoral votes to 207 of the 270 needed. 

The sad reality is a true popular vote election would see the candidates trying to appeal to the handful of urban population centers that currently make up the majority of the popular vote. A few swing states might be in play as a counter to an unwinnable urban center for a candidate, but the rest of the country would have no say or influence on the presidential election. Their votes, their opinions, their needs, would be too small to matter. 

So why is eliminating or nullifying the Electoral College so important to them? Because playing by the rules would require coming up with a candidate, platform and strategy that appeals to the entire country instead of one that is supported by just the handful of urban population centers where furthest-from-center message is better received.  

Rules matter, especially when it comes to our Constitution and Bill of Rights. When you look at the checks and balances our Founding Fathers built into the establishment of our country, understand they did this for a reason. They looked at world history and knew what had worked and what had failed. Our country is what it is today because we have held true to the Constitution and Bill of Rights, not in spite of it. 

By the way, for those who oppose the Electoral College, ask them how they feel about the United States Senate. The Founders designed Congress with the House of Representatives based on population and the Senate with two members from every state as a balance, exactly for the same reason. If the Electoral College gives too much weight to small, rural states, certainly allowing the smallest state of Wyoming to have the same number of Senators as the largest state of California would be considered unfair as well.   

Should we redesign the Senate to be population based like the House? Or how about just eliminating it completely since we already have a population-based chamber with the House of Representatives?  I’m sure the high population states will be more than charitable to the low population ones. And if they didn’t like the decisions that were made, who cares! It’s not like they could do anything about it. 

When someone is trying to convince you to change the foundation of our nation to advance their one-sided political purpose, you can bet your life you will not be on the side to benefit.

Yes, your vote this year matters.

Bob

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