Oust the electors

To the editor:

The votes have been cast, the electorate has spoken. While I am very disappointed by the outcome, I accept it because the election was fair and democratic, reflecting the will of the people. Had there been another Electoral College winner and popular vote loser, accepting the outcome would have been too hard to swallow.

To me and many others, it is far past time to remove this undemocratic clause from our Constitution. The Electoral College is a flawed compromise made in the closing days of the 1789 Constitutional Convention. Exhausted delegates settled on this method when slave and smaller states refused to accept a direct or popular vote which was favored by the Constitutions’ primary authors, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. 

Democracy failed when five of our 47 presidents lost the popular vote. We are putting our nation’s survival at risk by allowing the Electoral College to remain the law of the land.

Another, equally undemocratic Constitutional measure, also conceded to slave and smaller states, is the U.S. Senate. Currently, the 21 least populous states represent as many Americans as California. That translates into a Wyoming resident having roughly 66 times more influence over public policy as a Californian, or 42 senators representing about 10 percent of Americans having the power to block, via filibuster, legislation that benefits the remaining 90 percent.

Compounding the damage these compromises have and continue to cause is yet another undemocratic clause — amending our Constitution requires a supermajority. Without the one person, one vote rule can we really say “We the People”?

Joseph Cannisi