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Prince: Defends Electoral College

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While I wholeheartedly agree with Howie Verrille’s recent commentary (“Resident calls for reform of campaign, election laws,” Daily Independent, Aug. 26, 2020), in which he argues something needs to be done amid the endless requests for money on both sides of the aisle — I do not agree with his solution.

On its face, $25 per person of voting age would be a quick fix; but it does not address the fact that not every person of voting age votes. Sadly, this is true. It also does not address the fact that it is a “pay-to-play” solution and would therefore be suppressive of those voters who could not afford to pay. That “pretty affordable way” $25 he refers to may not be affordable at all to some. Voting is free, and I would hope that it remains free.

Regarding the Electoral College, I would also respectfully disagree with its elimination and as a solution implement a popularity contest.

The short version of my argument goes like this: In a country comprised of approximately 3,797,000 square miles, should the voters in three cities decide who is to be president, over and over and over again? What about the rest of us who don’t live in LA, Chicago or New York? Wouldn’t big city policies and laws prevail? But Arizona is not like that! Who will have our best interests at heart?

To illustrate further using statistics from the last presidential election: of the approximate 3,100 counties in the U.S., Trump won approximately 2,600 counties to Clinton’s 500 or about 84% to 16% of the geographic U.S. Clinton won 88 of the 100 largest (populous) counties including Washington, D.C. Without these 100 largest counties, she would have lost the popular vote by 11,500,000 votes instead of winning it by 2,200,000.

Clinton’s votes were concentrated in a few states, whereas Trump’s votes came from a wide geographic area to capture the Electoral College vote. Presidents who win the election from a small geographical area have absolutely zero incentive to understand anything or serve anyone outside of his or her small, but populous, world.

So in concluding, my argument for keeping the Electoral College, if the president is to be president of all of the United States, then all of the United States’ citizens, each from their unique state, should have a voice that is not silenced by the voting behemoth that is concentrated in our largest cities.

The wisdom of our founding fathers knew this to be the fair way and I also hope it stays this way.

Nancy Prince
Surprise