I was sitting at my desk a few days ago thinking about this weird, well at least entertaining, primary season when it hit me that we are really and truly nearing yet another Presidential Election.
My first thought was “Well, here we go again. I guess we need to get our act together for yet another wild and crazy ride. Let the games begin!”
They did!
One example of the, (well, I will be polite), baloney I have seen is an article in the New York Times entitled “The Electoral College Is Past Its Sell-By Date”. Well, again… Baloney!
As the reality set in that the race was on, the bombardment of verbal missiles began being launched about our Electoral College system and I was asked what I thought about the issue. Well, ask and ye shall get!
Before I get ahead of myself, a little history lesson.
Our forefathers were smart enough to understand States with larger numbers of people could/would be able to run the country by electing anyone they wanted for a particular race. It should be simple enough to understand this; however it appears not. So, let’s make it simple…
If you have a football team with four players, a team with six players and a team with 12 players, who do you think would probably win the most games?
Another example, if you have two baseball teams one with five people playing and another with nine I believe the team with nine would probably win more games.
In other words, both examples show the playing fields were not equal.
My opinion is based on what I believe are the original and realistic intentions at the time the system was established way back on September 6, 1787. In simple terms, less populated States (regardless of land size) should have the same influence/opportunity when electing our President as larger, or smaller, heavily populated States. It’s that simple.
So let’s look at the reasons why the Electoral College exists…
A. If this system did not exist today States such as California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina (states with double digit millions of citizens) would have more weight in all elections. In simple terms, if they were to get together and form some sort of coalition they would rule the roost.
Setting the above explanation aside, there are other details that need to be considered in this discussion,
Again keeping it simple…
How much time do you believe candidates would spend in the smaller States if the electoral votes were not important to them? I can hear them now, “Why bother? Their vote won’t make a difference.”
Well, let’s look at some numbers so we can more fully understand their stance.
If you take the States listed above, total their population count it would equal 167,707,819 bodies (yes, I know they are not all registered voters and it’s very doubtful if they were they would all vote). This total number equals more than half of all the other States combined. By the way, add in the territories, result is the same.
To make this much easier to understand, it creates fairness. Oh, at this point my Dad would be saying, “Boy! You just opened a can of worms!
B. Whether you like it or not, States tend to lean Left or Right, aka Democrat or Republican. Again, like it or not, it makes the system more equal by having the States and the political parties more in balance.
C. I’m going to start this point off by asking a question? If you lived in an area that the political party you do not support was “ruling the roost”, would you feel your vote really mattered? Well, regardless of party, you are still part of the population and depending on circumstances and vote you could end up being an Electoral College delegate and have even more say in the final results. Oh, by the way, this is one of the main reasons some people do not like the system as it is.
Now I feel the need to say there are equal amount of reasons people have doubtful feelings and worries about the Electoral College System.
A. There have been instances where an elected Delegate went wild and became a loose cannon, also known as rouge, or faithless, or loose cannon! Some states do not require delegates to vote in line with the Party that elected and sent them to vote their way. Welcome to the real world.
B. I know several people who do not support the Electoral College system because they feel their vote does not really matter. They believe once the election goes to the Electoral College they have lost their vote, their importance. So why bother?
Now for the “biggie”. Some people feel the Electoral College really and truly does not guarantee the will/desires of the masses. Example, Hillary Clinton wins by the numbers in the actual election, but loses in the Electoral College vote. Trump becomes president.
So here we are back to the original point. We are looking for the right thing to do. We are looking for something to trust and believe in. We are all “In the Pickle Barrel and are looking for a way out.”
Bill Pickle is a regular columnist for The Standard and host of In the Pickle Barrel weekdays.
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