Several weeks ago I wrote an article on the Electoral College and why it was established by the Founding Fathers. Given the recount efforts launched by the Green Party, I will now elaborate on its importance, particularly in regards to this year’s presidential election.
As I had mentioned in my previous article, the Founding Fathers believed that electing the President by popular vote would make America too democratic (note: America is a republic, not a democracy). It is also a matter of states’ rights. To explain how states’ rights pertains to the Electoral College, I will present some numbers from this year’s presidential election.
There are 3,141 counties/parishes (note: Louisiana uses the term parishes instead of counties) in the United States. Donald Trump won 3,084 of them, while Hillary Clinton won 57 counties. In New York State alone, there are 62 counties, in which the Donald won 46 of them, while Hillary only won 16 counties. And while Hillary won the popular vote nationwide by around 1.5 million votes, in the five counties that encompass New York City, Hillary won four of those counties, and received more than two million more votes than Trump did. In addition, these five counties gave Hillary a larger margin of victory in that area than the popular vote did nationwide. California and Illinois (two traditionally blue states) had similar outcomes.
So why should these traditionally blue states (or to be more precise, the localities, i.e. counties or cities that went Democratic) determine the outcome of the presidential elections. The three largest cities in America (New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago) do not speak for the rest of America. And that is where the concept of states’ rights is applied when it comes to the Electoral College. The Founding Fathers did not want any particular state (or states) to dominate the rest of the country. In those days, such states consisted of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. These days, it is a number of states, consisting of New York, Illinois, California, and most of the battleground states.
Meanwhile the recount efforts by the Green Party continue. Wisconsin is currently undergoing a recount, while it appears that the courts will decide on any potential recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania. It is unlikely that a recount in these states will change the outcome of the election.
Just a reminder: the Electoral College will cast its ballots on December 19, and Congress will verify the results on January 6.
Thus, this year’s presidential election is a repeat of the 2000 presidential election.
Image: By Howard Chandler Christy – The Indian Reporter, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/
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Share if you recognize the brilliance of the electoral college system.
