{"id":9736,"date":"2017-01-01T12:32:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T20:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/?p=9736"},"modified":"2019-10-12T12:51:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T19:51:24","slug":"why-the-electoral-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/why-the-electoral-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Electoral College"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Death of\u00a0Caesar –\u00a0Portrait by Vincenzo Camuccini<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By Scott Rohter, January 2017<\/p>\n

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The Democrat Party and the\u00a0mainstream media keep playing up the fact that Donald Trump didn\u2019t\u00a0win the popular vote in 2016. Since he didn\u2019t\u00a0\u201cwin\u201d\u00a0a majority of\u00a0popular votes, it is\u00a0their opinion\u00a0that he\u00a0shouldn\u2019t be the 45th President of the United States. The rest of the world looks on with\u00a0a mixed sense of curiosity and dismay\u00a0as\u00a0Republicans and Democrats battle it out on the evening news…\u00a0In the world\u2019s\u00a0oldest republic\u00a0(We are\u00a0not a democracy. We are a republic)\u00a0240 years after\u00a0our country\u00a0was founded\u00a0we\u00a0still can’t\u00a0agree on how\u00a0to\u00a0elect\u00a0a President, but at least no one has gotten killed over it yet. \u00a0Unfortunately that wasn’t the case in ancient Rome. While it is\u00a0frightening for the rest of the world to see\u00a0how contentious our political system\u00a0is, there is something that\u00a0most\u00a0foreign observers, and even\u00a0people in our own country seem to be\u00a0overlooking.\u00a0The Americian\u00a0system of electing\u00a0our leader is functioning exactly the way it was intended to function, and it is providing the stability that America needs as power is transferred from one administration\u00a0to\u00a0the next,\u00a0and from one political Party to\u00a0another.<\/p>\n

\"\"Electing a President is contentious. It\u00a0can be\u00a0very contentious. A lot is at stake. That is why we should all be glad that we have an Electoral College…\u00a0 to reduce some of the tensions and\u00a0mitigate the stress\u00a0on our political institutions… to\u00a0even out\u00a0the joy of victory\u00a0with\u00a0the agony of defeat.<\/p>\n

In America\u00a0the people\u00a0DO NOT directly elect our President. The official title of the person who\u00a0lives in the White House is:\u00a0 President of the United\u00a0States of America<\/strong>\u2026\u00a0 not\u00a0the President of the People… The States<\/strong>\u00a0play a very\u00a0important role in deciding who the\u00a0President of the United States\u00a0will be,\u00a0and the people who live in\u00a0these States elect\u00a0a person to be the President\u00a0of all\u00a0of the\u00a0States in our country, not just New York and California.\u00a0\u00a0The Electoral College system\u00a0is designed to allow\u00a0every\u00a0State<\/strong> to play an important role in electing\u00a0the President. Were it not for the Electoral College a single Party could\u00a0control the entire country just by winning\u00a0a handful of big cities while losing the rest of the country as indicated in\u00a0a map of the 2016 election results.<\/p>\n

The Electoral College\u00a0was designed to prevent something like this from ever happening. It is a compromise that was worked out at the Constitutional Convention between those who wanted the President to be chosen directly by the people, and\u00a0 those who wanted the President to be chosen\u00a0by State Legislatures. The compromise that they chose of electing\u00a0our President by means of an Electoral College is over 200 years old\u2026 It is still doing\u00a0a good job of ensuring that every State has a\u00a0voice in electing the President of the United States. It\u00a0ensures that all people who are legally eligible to vote can do so, but a President cannot be elected by\u00a0just receiving a\u00a0majority of votes in a few big States.\u00a0The President\u00a0must receive a majority of votes<\/strong> in a majority of States<\/strong> in order to be elected. The Electoral College\u00a0gives\u00a0every State a role in determining who our President will be, not just New York and California.<\/p>\n

There is another important thing that the Electoral College does which no one seems to be taking into consideration. Back in 1787 computers and\u00a0 electronic media didn\u2019t exist. The result of a Presidential Election couldn\u2019t be predicted or determined on the\u00a0same day that millions of voters were\u00a0still going to the polls. The Founding Fathers installed\u00a0a series of built in delays into the system that provide a very important\u00a0function. They act as a sort of shock absorber to the\u00a0whole process of electing a President… a buffer or cushion that\u00a0absorbs\u00a0unexpected\u00a0and possibly\u00a0catastrophic shocks to the system like the one\u00a0that occurred\u00a0in 2016 when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.\u00a0The way we elect our\u00a0President allows\u00a0ample time for those in power to\u00a0get used to the idea of relinquishing\u00a0power and accepting\u00a0the will of the people. The Electoral College helps\u00a0to ensure\u00a0a peaceful transition of power.<\/p>\n

The first of these built in delays occurs between November 2 (the day the people vote) and the day the Electoral College\u00a0meets\u00a0to cast their votes. This occurs on the first Monday after the second Wednesday\u00a0of December. This year that was on December 19th,<\/a> six weeks after the result of the 2016 Presidential election\u00a0was\u00a0known. That delay provided plenty of time for Democrats to get over their angst and get used to the idea that Hillary Clinton was not going to be the next President of the United States.<\/p>\n

You saw how\u00a0Democrats all over the country acted during this time. They\u00a0complained that the Russians had\u00a0somehow influenced\u00a0the election in favor of Donald Trump and they have kept pushing this notion for the past three and a half years. They immediately challenged the results of the election in three key States. There were riots in the streets in\u00a0some American cities. It was a\u00a0very contentious\u00a0time for many, but the President Elect\u00a0was safe. No harm came to him. Unlike Julius Caesar he wasn\u2019t stabbed in the back by his colleagues while\u00a0eating\u00a0dinner with the very people he thought were his friends, nor was he murdered on the floor of the Senate as was\u00a0too often\u00a0the case in ancient Rome.<\/p>\n

Our Electoral College System provides plenty of time for sore losers like\u00a0the Clinton wing of the Democrat Party to challenge the results of the election and\u00a0file whatever\u00a0 lawsuits they want like Jill Stein did on behalf of Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n

The next delay in\u00a0the Electoral College system occurs after\u00a0the members of the Electoral College\u00a0meet in their respective State Capitols all across America from Maine to California.\u00a0Thanks to the media we\u00a0already knew\u00a0 the result of that vote, but\u00a0it still\u00a0hadn\u2019t been officially\u00a0announced\u00a0yet\u2026\u00a0By now\u00a0\u00a0most of the sore losers\u00a0in the Democrat Party\u00a0were getting used to the idea that Hillary Clinton wasn’t going to be President. They\u00a0knew\u00a0that Donald Trump\u00a0had won\u00a0whether they like it or not. There were only a few die hard\u00a0NeverTrumpers<\/em> still out there\u00a0who refused to accept the fact that\u00a0the election was over and the winner had been decided. For the most part the reality had begun to set in even though the agony of defeat was still there. \u00a0<\/p>\n

On January\u00a06th<\/a>\u00a0in a joint session of Congress with\u00a0Vice President Joe Biden presiding the\u00a0decision of the Electoral College will be officially recorded on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and the name of Donald Trump will be\u00a0announced to members of Congress as\u00a0the next President of the United States of America.\u00a0 Not until\u00a0then will the 2016 Presidential election\u00a0be officially over. It has been\u00a0a full two months since Americans voted, two months since we knew who our next President was going to be, and two months for the\u00a0sore losers to get over it and get used to the idea that\u00a0Hillary Clinton\u00a0lost the election.\u00a0 Meanwhile the next President\u00a0of the United States has been safe. He has not been murdered in his own home\u00a0by his peers and colleagues like Julius Caesar was.\u00a0Order has been\u00a0maintained and power has been peacefully transferred from one\u00a0Administration to the next.\u00a0 That is why we\u00a0have an Electoral College.\u00a0 That is why we need\u00a0an Electoral College, and that is why we should keep the Electoral College. The wisdom of the Founding Fathers has proved crucial in maintaining\u00a0 stability, law, and order. Unfortunately\u00a0 Democrats<\/a> have introduced a bill in Congress to repeal the Electoral College. They do so at\u00a0great risk. It is a good system that provides stability and\u00a0ensures a\u00a0peaceful transition of power between opposing political Parties.<\/p>\n

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Corroborating Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/federal-register\/electoral-college\/roles.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/floor-action\/senate\/306121-dem-senator-introducing-bill-to-abolish-electoral-college<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

The Democrat Party and the mainstream media keep playing up the fact that Donald Trump didn\u2019t win the popular vote in 2016. Since he didn\u2019t \u201cwin\u201d a majority of popular votes, it is their opinion that he shouldn\u2019t be the 45th President of the United States. The rest of the world looks on with mixed sense of curiosity and dismay as opposing sides with conflicting opinions argue it out on the evening news… Even in the world\u2019s oldest republic (We are not a democracy. We are a republic) 240 years after our country was founded we still don’t agree on how to elect a President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[429,826],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9736"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10848,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9736\/revisions\/10848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}