Electoral College III

 

Sophisticated Lady

Educated lady with your college degree
Amazes me why you just can't see
Learned everything from your books on the shelf
But no one ever taught you how to think for yourself

You may be educated but are you electoral?

The sovereign of our country is "We the People" but the name of our country is the United States.  The President should be the choice of the people AND of the states.  The Electoral College is is a means of ensuring that the President is the choice of both.  It ensures that the choice has not only the support of the people.  but also a broad representation of the states.

Is the current system flawed? Absolutely.  The method of selection of Electoral College votes in Nebraska, with its famous "Blue Dot" instead of a "Winner takes all" means that the choice is one of both the people AND the state.  The attempt to change Nebraska's electoral policy on the eve of the current election is not only cynical, it shows how deeply flawed is the current system.  Every state should aspire to be like Nebraska, NOT Nebraska should aspire to be like every other state.

Are the 435 congressional-based electoral votes awarded to the states flawed?  Absolutely, but that number is not a feature of the Electoral College.  The number itself is NOT a constitutional requirement but the cowardly abandonment of the Congressional mandate to apportion seats after a decennial census that is based on a compromise after the 1910 Census.  A fairer way to apportion House seats would be the Wyoming Rule under which California would have 68, instead of 52, House of Representative seats and the total seats in the House would be 574 instead of 435.

The Electoral College Compact, that a state awards its votes to the winner of the national popular vote, ensures only that the President is the choice of the people, but that might not be the choice of the states.  The Electoral College is intended to be a means to ensure that the choice represents the people AND the states.  As wrong as it is for the loser of the popular vote but the winner of the Electoral College to be the President, it would also be wrong to see the winner of the popular vote but the loser of a revised Electoral College to be President. Two wrongs never make a right. It is possible that the winner of the presidential election could have a majority of the people but that support be concentrated in a narrow representation of states.  A revised Electoral College might prevent this from happening.

It is not the Electoral College that is flawed.  It is suggested that the number of votes in the Electoral College and the awarding of those votes on a "winner takes all" basis that is flawed.  As long as we are the United States then the President should be the choice of the people AND the states. 

That there are battleground states is evidence that the current system is flawed.  There should be battleground congressional districts.  The election should be not people OR states but people AND states. Countries that are divided, like Christians and Muslims in Lebanon, have other power sharing agreements that may only be customs which can be violated.  The Electoral College is an attempt to peacefully recognize and deal with those divisions in the law.