Steve Bantly: Trump right, Electoral College is a disaster for democracy

That’s why it is long past time that we abolished the Electoral College.

The electronic rabble-rousing for electoral change relies on immaturity and ignorance, preying on disappointed leftist ideologues who lack fundamental understanding of the political ideals behind their government.

The same founders who invented the Electoral College also favored constraining the scope of the national government. Sadly, in its current manifestation, that institutional arrangement is bankrupt. Because “swing” states shift from election to election (New Hampshire and Virginia this time) the successful campaign can not ignore any state as Hillary Clinton learned by completely ignoring Wisconsin. Because Wisconsin had voted for the Democratic candidate the previous seven presidential elections Berglund has never been an Electoral College voter.

Patrick Rosenstiel, a senior consultant with the group National Popular Vote, said the law would be activated in a presidential election year in which 270 or more electoral votes come from states that have a similar law on their books.

Potts said a lot of people think the Federal Register can somehow affect the outcome of the election.

“If I was to do anything other than represent the view of the voters who placed their trust in me that would be dishonest”, Allred told The Independent.

If liberals responded to the election of Donald Trump by seeking more authority for “blue” states to go their own ways, many conservatives would say yes to that deal.

Public opinion surveys consistently find solid majorities in favor of eliminating the Electoral College. Writing in the Atlantic, University of Baltimore law professor Garrett Epps says Lessig’s concept of the rationale for the electoral college is wrong. Had the United States embraced that system in 1860, Abraham Lincoln would easily have lost to John Breckinridge, the slave-power candidate.

The Electoral College meets after the general election.

The answer, Hayes found, is “quite a lot”.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

But as Hayes frames it, electoral college results are highly sensitive, or “unstable”, to small shifts in state and county boundaries. Now, the Electoral College is not a place.

The process of re-drawing district lines to give an advantage to one party over another is called “gerrymandering”.

BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: You remember those “Schoolhouse Rock!” segments on TV? Although Greathouse would’ve preferred a President-elect Ted Cruz, he has no reservations certifying Donald Trump and believes in the process.

NAYLOR: Oliver Potts knows this refrain well. Potts says his office is essentially the institutional memory of the College.

In the 1800 election, Hughes said, the House cast 36 ballots before electing Thomas Jefferson as the nation’s third president. There isn’t even a constitutional requirement that presidents be elected by a vote of the people.

“I’m getting dozens of actual letters, too”, he said. People should be very careful what they wish for.

One theme I’ve harped on in writing or talking about American history is the importance of interpreting history from primary sources.

POTTS: Here’s an excerpt.

The handful of national electors who are hoping to convince enough of their counterparts to cast votes for someone other than Trump have been dubbed Hamilton Electors. To that writer, they explain the Federal Register’s role and the background of the Electoral College. (Reading) Please vote your conscience.

Now, nobody’s actually proposing we change any borders like this as a matter of policy.