Letter to the Editor / The President Should be Chosen by The People

The Citizen ran an Ocala Star-Banner editorial, “Leave Electoral College in place” on Nov. 29, 2016.  The editors called the EC “a true testament of America’s exceptionalism”.  Their point was the EC was and is great and there’s no problem, except for some sore losers.  They couldn’t be more wrong.

The EC is an undemocratic anachronism that has outlived its limited usefulness and needs to be replaced with a more democratic system.  Twice in the last five presidential elections (2000 and 2016) the EC winner got significantly fewer votes than the loser.  In 2016 about 46% of eligible voters didn’t vote, and Trump only got 46% of the remaining, or actual, votes (compared with Hillary’s 48%).  Therefor, the “winner” got about 2.25 million FEWER votes than the loser.  What this means for democracy and governance is that the US has a minority (or accidental) President elected by less than 25% (46% of 54%) of the electorate.  This one-out-of-4 eligible voters is the smallest public support for a President in US history and, spin not withstanding, is the opposite of a Presidential mandate.

The EC was created by the founding fathers as a compromise between those who wanted Congress to choose a President and Vice President, and those who wanted a popular vote.  Originally, the EC didn’t even have to reflect the will of the people.  The president is the only elected official who is, or should be, selected by all the voters.  This is what “one man, one vote” means.  But, increasingly, the EC does violence to this fundamental democratic concept and voters in a handful of “swing” states have disproportionate voting power that is further distorted by gerrymandering.

Reforming our broken system is not without problems but our democracy must evolve in order to preserve essential democratic principles.  Our electoral system must reflect and respect the American ideal of majority rule based on one man one vote, and the President must be elected by the people.

Roger C. Kostmayer

KW