The founders of our country and authors of our Constitution were some pretty sharp fellows. It took the writers about two years to come up with a document which withstands time, tides and technology as our national guide-book for over 230 years. Those revolutionary men in Philadelphia had plenty of examples NOT to follow when they penned the blueprints as a way for our republic to exist in the best possible way, not perfect, but better than most.
To make sure no royalty, kings or tyrants rose to power, the Electoral College was included in Article 2 of the Constitution. Another reason for the Electoral College is to make sure big states didn’t overpower small states when selecting a President – each state had a voice that was heard. Some even say another surreptitious motive for an Electoral College was to make it easier to count a smaller number of votes in a time when quill and ink tabulated the results.
Whatever the reasons, the Electoral College has worked well for almost 60 presidential elections, with confusion and conflict in only a few cases. In our nation’s history, only five candidates have won the majority of the national popular vote yet lost the election. They are; Andrew Jackson 1824, Samuel Tilden 1876, Grover Cleveland 1888, Al Gore 2000, and Hillary Clinton 2016.
Because two of those losses happened in the last 20 years, and both losers were Democratic Party members, there are some sour feelings when it comes to the Electoral College process. There are many on the left who would love to get rid of the electoral process. Doing this would ensure Democratic Presidents forever by allowing the east and west coast urban areas to decide the outcome for the whole nation. Luckily, ending the Electoral College would need a constitutional amendment – or would it?
There is a movement growing in blue states which started in 2006 known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This is an agreement among a group of twelve U.S. states to award all of their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote – no matter how the people of their state voted.
