Standing Up for the Electoral College

Rush Link --

There is hardly anything in the Constitution harder to explain, or easier to misunderstand, than the Electoral College. And when a presidential election hands the palm to a candidate who comes in second in the popular vote but first in the Electoral College tally, something deep in our democratic viscera balks and asks why the Electoral College shouldn’t be dumped as a useless relic of 18th century white, gentry privilege. Actually, there have been only five occasions when a closely divided popular vote and the electoral vote have failed to point in the same direction. No matter. After last week’s results [the 2016 Presidential election], we’re hearing a litany of complaints: the Electoral College is undemocratic, the Electoral College is unnecessary, the Electoral College was invented to protect slavery — and the demand to push it down the memory hole. 

                                                                              -- excerpt from Gettysburg College paper


 And from time to time here I, too, have had occasion to stand up for the Electoral College as being something not to toss in the waste bin of history.  Having read about the Electoral College over the years it has seemed to me appropriate and necessary to defend something which sprang from good intentions.  The truth of the matter is the Electoral College has not functioned as envisioned since early in our nation's history.  However, the answer is not to eviscerate it further or to abolish it.

Please join me in perusing the document linked to below.  




In Defense of the Electoral College