Electoral system fails us all; time for a change

The result of last week’s USA presidential election has raised the question as to whether the process is fair and democratic. The current ten states and D.C. account for 165 electoral votes, well short of the required 270 to win the election. Short of an Electoral College mutiny or a constitutional amendment (both extremely unlikely), there is one legislative route to eliminating the Electoral College, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The Electoral College was born.

That level of unpopularity makes it hard to predict what undecided voters – and, yes, there are still are some not-insignificant number of people who haven’t made up their minds yet – will do as they are faced with choosing between two unsavory options. Ms Clinton won California on 8 November by more than 3 million votes, but claimed the same amount of electoral votes as of she’d won it by only 3,000. Hillary Clinton has already conceded the election, saying, “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead”, and even President Obama referred to Trump as “president-elect” when Trump visited the White House.

But members of Congress can formally protest any faithless elector votes, and have them thrown out, when they officially count the ballots in a joint session on January 6, 2017.

A system that allows candidates to ignore the nation’s most heavily populated states, year after year, is no way to run an election.

Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers, was a strong advocate of the Electoral College, believing that the institution must act as a safeguard against the unreliable public who may be prone to elect unqualified candidates. “If you voted for Hillary Clinton and Kaine you were voting for the Democratic electors”, said Michael.

Senate Democrats seem to be talking about seeking common ground with Donald Trump. The popular vote in this election was in favor of President Obama with 65,915,795 votes to 60,933,504.

Now America is not the only country where one man, one vote can not be proclaimed.

Getting on to making America great again, Trump said: “Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach”. The polls show that urban voters favored Clinton by a 59-35 percent margin, which is contrasted by rural voters who favored Trump by a 62-36 percent margin.

Trump is not the first, but the fifth, person to win the presidency but lose the popular vote. On Dec. 19, Electoral College electors will vote from their individual states. They will now presumably welcome Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the court.

There’s nothing wrong with revisiting the Electoral College system if conflicts become the norm – particularly if the disparity is a wide one. Clarksville’s Pat Allen, who will represent the 7th Congressional District when the electors meet in Nashville next month, said it took her an hour to delete the emails but that she has not considered changing her vote. They are Florida; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Michigan; Wisconsin; Iowa; Colorado; Nevada; and New Hampshire.

So I ask you: When was the last time your political leaders held a town hall forum or listening session within your community?