Abolish the Electoral College: Secure Our Elections: Vote for Change

One of the three key components of American government is the Office of the President. But what happens when the president of the U.S. does not represent the hopes and wishes of the majority of the people? What if the president’s opponent garnered some 3 million more popular votes than the victor? What if the president’s victory is questionable due to outside influences like WikiLeaks , the interference of James Comey,  and the interference of Russia?

Whenever the above “roadblocks” to Hillary Clinton’s victory are mentioned to Mr. Trump, he does not like it. He feels that they raise questions concerning the legitimacy of his presidency and therefore “taints” his win.  That’s fine for Trump. He can view these influences however he pleases, but how does one think it impacts those that didn’t support Trump? Well, they wonder (with good reason) if the proclaimed victor is truly the legitimate president of the U.S.  Perhaps we will never know the answer. In sports they would probably list the victor’s name and title with an “asterisk” to denote the “questions” surrounding the “win”. Since there was no way to assess the true weight of these outside influences on the 2016 Election, the Electoral College winner, Donald J. Trump, prevailed. However, the “questions” concerning this debacle are not likely to go away-not ever.

As mentioned above, though Mr. Trump won the Electoral College, Ms. Clinton won the” popular vote” by some 3 million votes nationwide. This has led many citizens to question again the need for this “outdated” Electoral College concept in present- day America.

According to Archives.gov, “The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.”

Why not do away with the Electoral College and let the “popular votes” determine the winner of the presidential election? Why not? When we voted for class president in elementary school, the person with the most votes won and we thought that was fair. What is this Electoral College thing all about anyway?

According to Time Online in an article entitled “The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists”, by Akil Reed Amar, the present-day Electoral College election procedure came into play with the ratification of the 12^th Amendment in 1804. Southern states felt that Northern states would have too much influence in the national election of leaders in the new America due to its larger population of white participants. The traditional South had about half a million Blacks who they wanted counted for population purposes. A compromise by the North and South counted Blacks as 3/5^th of a person. Therefore five Blacks equaled three whites, which resulted in the largest slave-holding state, Virginia, electing several Virginian presidents in the early years of American history.

So, again, the 12^th Amendment granted representation to the South, based in large part on a slave population who could not vote and effect change in the nation for themselves-but whose numbers gave southerners a large voice in national politics. Though the slave population assured enormous population-based representation for slave owners and white southerners, sadly, this 3/5^th Compromise effectively decreased the likelihood that slaves would ever be freed by their owners because southern population representation would decrease, and the owners would also lose the slave’s “production”. In this sense the Compromise strengthened the institution of slavery in America.  Slaves not only provided free labor to the South but allowed them to have a greater voice in national government.

In the article referred to above, Mr. Amar reminds us that our 50 American governors are elected by popular vote. He suggests that we should elect our president by popular vote too. I agree.

Oftentimes American elections are completed without a hitch. However, sometimes there are problems. When there was a question about votes in the “Bush 43” election, the matter was ultimately settled by the Supreme Court. With reference to the Clinton-Trump election of 2016, we could not adjudicate the final results through the Court even though the results were likely skewed in the direction of Trump “inadvertently” by James Comey, and “by design” by WikiLeaks and Vladimir Putin. Despite Putin’s complicity in our election, Trump still sidles up to him and holds him in high esteem. This seems peculiar to many who see this as “consorting with the enemy”.

If WikiLeaks, Comey, and Putin did collectively “decide” the outcome of the 2016 Election then it means that Donald J. Trump is not a legitimate president.  However, since we cannot assess their actual “impact” on the election, we have to accept the election results as confirmed by the election authorities. At this point we must prepare ourselves for the next election, in which, the pundits say, Putin will strike again! So, what must we do to insure more secure and worry-free elections in the future?

First, we must commit the necessary monetary and manpower resources to protect our elections going forward. We must let our adversaries know that we Americans are committed, as a nation, to securing our elections. In particular, we must let Putin know that we are darn serious, and are willing to invoke sanctions or whatever else to protect our elections. We also must put mechanisms in place aimed at stopping outside forces from effectively placing deceptive ads or videos online and on social media.  These communications are designed to influence our voting decisions through fear.  The purpose of many of them is to divide Americans along racial lines.

Secondly, we must get rid of all those frightened congresspersons that are immobilized by their fear of Mr. Trump. We need leaders with strong moral values and traditional American grit. We need folks who will be unafraid to “stand up” in the face of “whomever” or “whatever”.

Thirdly, we have an archaic procedure in place to choose the most important office in the land. We should abolish the Electoral College system in favor of a “direct” election system characterized by the concept of “one-person-one-vote”.

Fourthly, we must elect a president who understands that the well-being, success, and sustainability of America rests in the concept that all Americans must be equally represented by its president. Donald Trump does not represent all of the people or the majority of the people. He generally caters to his base. We cannot risk being led into the future by “a majority of one” with unbridled selfish ambition, and questionable motives and values.

Fifth, we must go forward with the concept that in America, every political party has a voice.  That means the Minority Party as well as the Majority Party.  Neither party can effectively run the country alone.  When the Majority Party misuses its position to bully its way to success (as Nunes and the Majority Republicans did with the House Intelligence Committee’s so-called Russia Investigation) something must be done.  After denying the Minority Democrats an equal and viable voice on the House Intelligence Committee, Majority Republicans essentially hijacked the Committee and “faked” their finding of “No evidence of collusion” with reference to the Russian Investigation.

Just this week, however, the Senate Intelligence Committee came out with their Russia Investigation Report citing that Russia did meddle in the 2016 Election in an effort to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. The Senate’s Committee was said to be bipartisan and was in fact bipartisan. Everyone’s voice was heard. It was a prime example of democracy at work, reminding us that here is still hope for Capitol Hill.

Following the stalwart example of the Senate Intelligence Committee, we must act in reverence to our traditional values at the ballot box come November and beyond. We don’t need to see any more political candidates campaigning with handguns strapped to the hip or shotguns in their arms. This is America, for goodness sake! Americans must now act together to save our nation and its values!