The Herald editorial of Jan. 30 (“
By most accounts, the Electoral College was a political compromise crafted to reject direct democracy and one-person, one-vote. The original design was envisioned as a corrective – through voting by selected electors – against misguided democratic tendencies that would interfere with the governance of the nation by its powerbrokers.
Another reputed objective of the process was to assure the electoral clout of the then less populous, slaveholding Southern states. Five times (in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016), a candidate failed to get the most votes for president, yet was sworn in to lead the country.
We came within a handful of ballots of adding 1960 to that list when Kennedy controversially edged Nixon with 0.17 percent of the popular vote.
With our increasingly close presidential elections, we may well see this inversion more often and be presented with further opportunities for social and political division. What unites many of us, however, is a rejection of the outdated Electoral College.
Stretching back half a century, public opinion polls have consistently reflected that a majority of Americans favor direct, national elections for president. The backstory to the Electoral College is not an especially uplifting moment in our history and its failures as a democratic instrument are evident; it’s time this antiquated relic of political compromise be discarded.
William LeMaire
Durango
