Presidents are elected by the States

The NPVIC is the "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact" scheme.

TEXAS
To the Editor, The Austin American-Statesman:
 
As a former three-term legislative staffer, and following public policy for a half-century, I read with interest Prof. Long’s Dec 4 op-ed on the Electoral College. I second his summary of recent political eras as the partisan pendulum swings back and forth. But here’s the glaring fact that’s missing: we have never, ever elected a president by popular vote. We don’t have national elections nor a peoples’ president. POTUS stands for “President of the United STATES.” Surely Prof. Long understands this.
 
The President is CEO of the U.S. Federation of States
​The President represents the states in matters that are primarily external to the states: trade deals and treaties, defense and warfare, border integrity, and running the Executive Branch.  He or she is not our School Superintendent!
 
In presidential elections, we count every electoral vote equally. The Electoral College is part of the infrastructure that ensures every state a voice in this specific election. It does enable minorities to prevent a specific action, namely, presidential election by a handful of population centers. Rather, successful candidates must secure support from multiple regions of the country.

Electoral College Keeps Election Problems Contained
The Electoral College provides for election transparency by building a legal wall around each state as a safeguard against election irregularities in any other state. Remember 2020? Six states experienced vote tabulation controversies. Specifically because of the Electoral College, not one of the 20 neighboring states was impacted.  
 
As to Long’s overall point: the bi-partisan list of presidents who were elected with less than a majority of the popular vote, includes: John F. Kennedy (1960), Richard Nixon (1968), Bill Clinton (1992 and 1996), George W. Bush (2000), and Donald Trump (2016). In fact, this has been the case about 40 percent of the time since 1824.

​So there’s no reason to single out one major political party as being a loser. 


Roberta Schlechter
Portland, OR

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