SAVE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Part of the problem with America today is that political leaders are floating ideas which are contrary to basic Constitutional principles. One of the most appealing to some circles is to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a “One Person, One Vote” nationwide vote. This is crazy for many reasons, especially in light of the 2020 elections. The Electoral College was a carefully crafted institution to help assure the country would function smoothly in critical times like national elections. The basic concept of CHECKS AND BALANCES is nowhere on better display than in the way the Electoral College works.

As a catastrophist, I can see why the Founding Fathers thought of America as a REPRESENTATIVE form of government. Please consider this scenario of a President-elect and Vice-President-elect both dying between election day and inauguration day. The Electors from the prevailing party must then decide on a successor on the spot. The Founding Fathers trusted that a small group of empowered representatives could decide on who the successor would be.

There is another reason to have electors by state. As an Iowan I want my vote to count, rather than be cancelled out by some dead person voting in Chicago. By aggregating votes at no higher level than each state, we avoid nationwide fraud. At least corruption in the voting process is limited to the afflicted state and not exported into the nationwide process.

One improvement which has been adopted by Nebraska and Maine is to have electors selected for each Federal voting district, instead of the winner-take all method used by most states. The winner-take-the-state method is in itself is an incentive for fraud which could be cured by a Constitutional Amendment.