Defending the Electoral College
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Today’s Columbus Dispatch published an op-ed by me defending the Electoral College. There was an article next to it opposing it, but I can’t get to it on-line because I am not a subscriber. But I have put my piece, as published, on our site. Click on my name.
Peter W. Schramm. I’m tempted to place a couple of coffee mugs here, but y’all would come down on me too hard and I couldn’t bear it, being so sensitive and all.
5:36 PM / November 16, 2004
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What’s truly amazing about this entire debate is the fact that the left primarily wants to get rid of the Electoral College because they think it is in their short term political interests. That certainly should not be a more important factor than the stability of the system. Our Constitution has served us well, and I am not so sure that any groups should tamper with it just because they think the changes might work to their benefit.
That being said, is there any reason to believe that, generally speaking, Democrats would fare any better under a simple majority-rule system? That certainly was not the case in this election. Nor would they have much success under a system like that in Maine, where you compete for an individual district’s electoral vote. Even a cursory review of the county-by-county red/blue maps shows that Bush would still win the bulk of the electoral votes available in the states that he won, and would peel off quite a few votes from large parts of New York and California. The electoral system, combined with the populations of NYC, LA, San Francisco, and Chicago is a large reason that the Democrats are still competitive nationally. Make it a district-by-district race, where 40% of the votes in California and New York are no longer absorbed by the winner-take-all system, and candidates like Kerry will do worse, not better.
Great article, Peter, and Moe is right.
The tyranny of the majority – that’s the danger. Those who advocate the abolition of the Electoral College demonstrate that tyranny.