Electoral College serves a goal

Even though Hillary Clinton may have garnered the popular vote, Donald Trump collected more than the minimum 270 electoral college votes needed to win the office of the presidency.

Tennessee’s members of the Electoral College tell The Tennessean they are being sent hundreds of “harassing” emails asking them not to vote for Donald Trump or to abstain when they convene to cast their ballots December 19.

Another alternative to the Electoral College is a national bonus system that awards extra electoral votes to the victor of the popular vote, ensuring that no candidate can be elected without winning the popular vote. She now leads Mr. Trump by more than 700,000 votes – 61.3 million to 60.6 million – with several million votes left to be counted. It is the fifth time in history that a nominee has won the popular vote but not the Electoral College.

Still, seeing Clinton’s popular vote is nice, even if it carries no legal heft. MI law requires the state’s 16 electors to cast their votes for the presidential candidate who wins the majority of voters.

Probably the most egregious power grab of the Electoral College is that for people who comprise the loyal opposition in areas dominated by the other party, their votes count for nothing. The electoral college going with Clinton is highly unlikely. The compact would guarantee that the victor of the popular vote becomes president, effectively changing the United States voting system without abolishing the Electoral College and bypassing the need for a constitutional amendment. America today will continue to survive, with our electoral college kept intact. It was conceived by the founders to appease southern slave-owning states and for an anti-democratic fear of the uneducated hoi polloi. And then we have a president. It makes no sense that the 50 percent candidate gets all 35 of the electoral votes and not just a percentage of them. The votes of citizens in less populous states have far more weight than do votes from more populated states.

No one has been able to devise anything better than the Electoral College to give all voters a voice, and to give the president a broad base of support from which to govern. It would take 112 years for another candidate to win the popular vote and lose an election.

While voter turnout was generally strong, it was comparatively lower on the Democratic ticket.

There is nothing nefarious about the compact.

“We also see the Electoral College serving to protect the interests of smaller, less populous states“.

The last amendment to be added to the constitution was the 27th amendment, which officially became a part of the constitution in 1992.

States that now support the measure include Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, Illinois and California, as well as Washington DC – all historically blue or purple states.

On July 17 the delegates decided that there should be one president, elected by Congress and eligible for re-election, and then they changed their minds four times in 10 days.

Throughout the nation, there are now many thoughts and emotions swirling about the recent results of our presidential election. Trump managed to mobilize enough rural and small-town voters to overcome the big-city vote in many states. The argument lacks merit.

The meeting of the electors is where they vote for president and vice president, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately”. Manchin has been appointed vice-chairman of the Senate Democrats’ Policy and Communications Committee.