1. Introduction

Since the recent election, much has been written about the Electoral College. Not surprisingly, those urging abolition seem to be Clinton supporters, and the defenders seem to be Trump supporters – but the questions go way beyond the current election. The arguments have gotten too complex to fit into a Facebook post, so I’m creating this Blog, where I can break down the issues by topic. While I will certainly present my own point of view, there is also an opportunity for an open discussion – as long as people refrain from personal attacks or discussions that are clearly off topic.

My interest in this issue goes back 50 years, when I proposed abolishing the Electoral College at a Natick High School public speaking class. I had noticed that the election of 1888 showed incumbent Grover Cleveland to be the popular winner, but the Electoral College awarded the presidency to Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland was vindicated four years later when he won back the presidency, becoming the only president in history to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
 

At my NHS presentation, I predicted that this anomaly would occur again and that people would be outraged that the will of the voters would be violated. I was right in the first prediction, but totally wrong in the second. It took 112 years for the Electoral College to, once again, override the popular vote, but when Bush beat Gore in 2000, there was no rush to amend the Constitution. Now, after only 16 years, the situation has happened again. Although there’s a lot of discussion about the Electoral College, there’s little chance of this happening – for the same reason as 2000: the Republicans are in firm control, and they seem to benefit from the current system. 
 

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that the results of the 2016 election are invalid. Everyone played by the rules of the game, however outdated and ill-conceived those rules were. But the right thing to do is to create a system for the future that is democratic and fair and works for America of the 21st century, not one designed for an America of the 18th Century.