It is time to seriously get rid of the Electoral College

By SJ Otto

Across the country people have been trying to reverse the election of Donald Trump to office. One way of doing this is an attempt to end the Electoral Collage. That would allow the election of Hillary Clinton since she had the most popular votes.

The idea of reversing Trump's is a waist of time. He won. We are stuck with him for now. There is no way to reverse this.

But the other idea of getting rid of the Electoral Collage is a good one and should be pursuited. A lot of people want to get rid of the Electoral Collage on both the left and the right. At present there is a petition drive to get this action going. It should continue.

The Electoral College is a relic of the American Revolution. Our forefathers thought people were not smart enough to vote directly for president. So instead the people can vote for an electorate who will then vote for the president. This is about the only western style democracy that uses such a system. In modern times leaders are directly elected by the people. Many countries have a proportional representation system that allows political parties to get seats in their congressional bodies according to the votes they get. In such a system the party with the most votes choice the leader. Some have to form coalitions to get a majority to pick the leader or there may be a run off election if neither party gets the majority of votes. Proportional representation is a lot more democratic than a two-party system. The US is one of the few countries that will allow for a president to win with a minority of the votes, as happened in this last election.

Many people I know have known recently have tried to work on electing 3rd parties, such as the Greens. Because of the Electoral Collage, it is basically impossible to elect someone outside of our two-party system. To seriously try to elect these other candidates from other parties is a waist of time. They only purpose they serve is for protest votes. That is to vote for someone who can't win rather than vote for the two choices given. For those people who really want to elect a third party it is time to work to abolish the Electoral Collage. That abolitions is absolutely necessary before we can seriously try to build a 3rd party.

It will take time. It is not easy to change the constitution. But such changes do happen in this country. We need to change the constitution as soon as we can. We need real elections not the phoney ones we are getting with the Electoral Collage.