There is a big push by some high-profile Democrats to eliminate the Electoral College. They prefer counting the popular vote as the best way to elect our President.
The key to understanding the Electoral College is that it elects a President of the States, not a President of the collective people as if there were no states. If we do away with the Electoral College then some states lose their representation, being totally subject to the whims of the huge population centers concentrated in just a few states. Under the Electoral College system, the citizens of each state are voting for their representatives/electors to determine which Presidential candidate will best represent the needs of their state. The Electoral College was an ingenious solution formulated by the founding fathers to prevent mob rule. The Electoral College and also the Bill of Rights were specifically designed in the Constitution to protect the rights of the minorities from mob rule—which is majority rule.
A prime example of the need for the Electoral College is the Presidential election of 2016.
- Clinton won the popular vote nationwide by approximately 1 ½ million votes.
- Trump won the Electoral College vote with 304 votes. Clinton received 227.
- There are 3,141 counties in the United States. Trump won 2,626 of them. Clinton won 487.
- There are 62 counties in New York State. Trump won 46 of them. Clinton won 16.
- In the five counties that comprise New York City—Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond, and Queens—Clinton won four of these while Trump won only Richmond. Hillary received well over 2 million more votes than Trump from the NYC metro area. These five counties alone more than accounted for Clinton’s popular-vote margin of victory in the election.
- These five counties comprise 319 square miles. The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles.
- When you have a country that encompasses almost four million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election.
- Large densely populated Democrat cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles shouldn’t speak for the rest of the country.
- Most of the large cities vote primarily Democrat, in large part because Democrats run city politics and give away a lot of free benefits—basically buying votes. This is precisely why the Democrats are pushing to abolish the Electoral College—to give large population centers an unfair advantage over the rural population to insure future Presidents will be from the Democrat Party.
The above is why we have the Electoral College. It’s a safety net so that everyone’s vote counts.
