Fear And Loathing Of The Electoral College

[Draggingtree]

Forbes:

Oct 20, 2016 @ 12:44 PM

 

Fear And Loathing Of The Electoral College

David Davenport Contributor

 

Consider a couple of seasonal trivia questions: Where in the Constitution is the Electoral College established and where does it meet? The answers are the same: Nowhere. The Constitution speaks of “electors,” but not a college, and the electors meet only in their respective state capitals.

 

Now a more serious question: Why is there so much fear and loathing of the Electoral College? The origin of the modern backlash against it is pretty clearly the 2000 presidential election when Al Gore defeated George W. Bush by approximately 500,000 popular votes (half a percent difference with over 100 million total votes cast), but lost the electoral vote 271-266 and the election. A huge hue and cry erupted that the election was undemocratic since the people’s choice did not win. It didn’t help matters when another arguably undemocratic institution, the U.S. Supreme Court, weighed in to settle the election outcome.

 

This result, where the winner of the popular vote lost the presidency in the Electoral College, has occurred two other times, in the elections of 1876 and 1888. In one additional case, John Quincy Adams lost both the

 

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

They are correct it is undemocratic.....and that's a good thing. The founders/framers had a well founded distrust of the mob. That is why they looked to Sparta not Athens as their role model.