Terrell: Keep the Electoral College

It is true Hillary R. Clinton did win the popular vote in 2016.
Because she won the popular vote, she and the Democratic Party feel she should have been elected president of the United States.
Since it doesn’t work that way, the Democrats now want to change the rules.
It never crossed their minds that they would lose the presidential election or that they would fail to capture Washington. It was written in the stars in English, Russian and in other languages, so they thought!
Thank goodness for the Electoral College.
I continue to remain surprised at how many voters weren’t aware of the Electoral College, how it works, or even why it exists.
Most baby boomers learned about the Electoral College in eighth-grade civics. It’s too bad we aren’t still teaching civics like it was once taught.
I am still amazed and find it hard to believe that voters on both sides of the aisle did not know what and where the college was.
Can you believe someone asked in all sincerity how a college could determine a president and another asked, “Where’s the Electoral College?” Words from college graduates, mind you!
We are fortunate that our forefathers in the 1700s foresaw population issues and threw us a “lifeline” that changed American politics in the last presidential election.
For those who remain unsure about the Electoral College, it is best described as a process established by the founding fathers in our U.S. Constitution.
There are 538 electors in our 50 states and the District of Columbia. State laws vary on how these electors are chosen. Many of the states have a “winner-take-all” policy meaning that if the Republican candidate for president wins the state then that candidate gets all of the electors’ votes.
Some states electors are not bound and may cast their vote for any candidate. The number of electors varies by state. For example California has 55; Texas has 38, Georgia 16, South Dakota 3, New York 29 and Maine 11.
The total number of electors for each state is determined by the most recent census. A state’s total includes two senators from each state plus one elector for each representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The process was designed to keep a small number of states with large populations from always dominating the polls.
Todd Eberly of St. Mary’s College in Maryland said in a recent blog, “…a split between the popular vote and the electoral vote serves as an important reminder that presidents are elected to be chief executives and not representatives of the people. Though a president may be head of state and head of government, he/she is not the peoples’ representative. He’s not a representative at all.”
Eberly went on to say, “America is a nation of people and a nation of semi-sovereign states. Just as the House of Representatives exists to represent the people and the Senate exists to represent the states, the Electoral College was created on the same representative compromise-the people and the states have a say.”
Debating the Electoral College is not new. There has always been opposition to its existence. Those who support the college say it is a fundamental part of government and federalism. Their argument is that it offers the candidates a chance to appeal to voters in rural areas and in areas where population numbers are less dense.
Alexander Hamilton, in his Federalist No. 68 paper, supported the college feeling it could not be influenced by foreign interests and that the process would reduce the possibility of corruption.
There are also those that believe it encourages and enhances at a minimum, a two-party system.
Those who are opposed feel that presidential candidates focus their campaign disproportionately and the process gives less populated states more voting power.
The fact of the matter is that our Founding Fathers saw the Electoral College as a means of maintaining the sovereignty of our individual states even though they were a part of the larger union.
The college guarantees each state a voice in the decision of electing a president.
Heed the words of African-American writer Walter E. Williams, who writes for Creators Syndicate.
“Subjecting presidential elections to the popular vote sounds eminently fair to Americans who have been miseducated by public schools and universities.
“Worse yet, the call to eliminate the Electoral College reflects an underlying contempt for our Constitution and its protections for personal liberty. Regarding miseducation, the founder of the Russian Communist Party, Vladimir Lenin, said, ‘Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.’”
History has taught us about Lenin and we should look no further.
After all, we are a Republic and not a democracy. The Constitution suits us well and so does the Electoral College.
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Jimmy Terrell is retired from a career in law enforcement and is a Winder city councilman. He can be reached at ejterrell65@gmail.com.