Recent letters have supported the Electoral College. Consider a different perspective.
As established by Article II of the Constitution, the college was a compromise between a president elected by Congress and one elected by popular vote. If the president was elected by Congress, the individual might feel a sense of obligation to it. A popular vote was opposed because framers of the Constitution deemed the population was insufficiently educated to elect a national leader.
At the time of the signing of the Constitution, states were granted the right to decide who could vote, but in most cases, that right remained in the hands of white male landowners as it had previously. Neither women nor blacks could vote. While being educated did not equate to being a landowner, the practical effect was not entirely dissimilar.
A salient concern about the Electoral College is highlighted by the “red state”–“blue state” terminology. If a state votes 51 percent red and 49 percent blue, it is defined as a red state. The votes of nearly half the population are reduced to irrelevancy.
By fostering the dominance of state voting, true democracy is subordinated to an artificiality that is no longer applicable. The Electoral College has jettisoned the majority vote five times in our country’s history.
The Electoral College also creates a situation whereby small states are overrepresented. Present-day apprehensions about eliminating the Electoral College are unrelated to the reasons for which it was created.
Gordon Clouser
Durango
