Rebuttal vs. "Archaic EC Keeps Trump Formidable"

NEW MEXICO

To the Editor, The Santa Fe New Mexican:

Re: Rebuttal Against 'Archaic Electoral College Keeps Trump Formidable'
 
Here are some thoughts on Milan Simonish’s 8/27 op-ed on the Electoral College.

It’s a common misconception that we have a national election and a people's president. We have neither.

In U.S. presidential elections the ONLY "majority" that counts is the electoral vote count from "the States." That's what POTUS stands for: "President of the United STATES."  As the CEO of the American Federation, the President represents the States in matters like trade deals and treaties, defense and warfare, border integrity, and running the Executive Branch.  No other office crosses borders and speaks for the whole. The presidential election process alone reflects this.

A Republic of Republics

The United States has been called “a republic of 50 co-equal states; a republic of republics.” Each state has equal representation in the US Senate because every state is equally sovereign. In our national governance, every sovereign state has an equal place at the table. That’s the point of equal representation in the US Senate. The Electoral College helps to enact this principle. It’s part of our Federation’s connecting tissue. The Constitution is organized to DISBURSE, not consolidate, power.  That’s why “Thermopolis, Wyoming, and Dover, Delaware” will always have a place at the table. But what if there were no Electoral College? In his article, Simonich mentions 22 different states. The Los Angeles metropolitan area alone has a higher population than all but four of them.
 
Presidents Are Never Elected by a National Popular Vote. On Purpose. By Design.
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Arguments about who won or lost the popular vote always head down a rabbit hole. It's just not the game that's being played or has ever been played. And every presidential candidate knows this! Did you know, in 1996 Bill Clinton got a smaller percentage of the popular vote (43%) than Donald Trump did in 2015 (46%)? Such details are both interesting and meaningless. The Electoral College delivered both men to the Oval Office.  (See Wikipedia.)

The bi-partisan list of presidents who were elected with less than a majority of the popular vote, includes Lincoln (1850), Hayes (1876), Garfield (1880), Cleveland (1884, 92), Wilson (1912, 16), Truman (1948), Kennedy (1960), Nixon (1968), Clinton (1992 and 1996), George W. Bush (2000), and Trump (2016).  (See Statista.com)

This has been the case about 40 percent of the time since 1824. The LA Times (7/14/23) reported that “Since World War II, the Electoral College has had a Democratic tilt nine times and a Republican one 10 times ...”  California used to be ‘Red’ while Texas and Florida used to be ‘Blue.’ The Constitutional model and the Electoral College distinctly react to migration trends. 

The Electoral College Keeps Election Problems in One State Confined to that State

Finally, the Electoral College builds a ‘legal wall’ of essential safeguards around every state’s presidential vote tally.  Recall the 2020 election controversies in a handful of states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Thanks to the Electoral College, the 20 states that border the ones in question were unaffected by the disagreements. 

​Call it ‘zany,' but the Electoral College, and state sovereignty, are embedded in America’s election infrastructure.
 
Roberta Schlechter
NW Regional Volunteer for Michigan-based KEEP OUR 50 STATES
Portland, OR

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