Abolish outdated Electoral College

During the 2016 election, pundits and citizens again and again referred to the electoral process and voting as American democracy at work. Please, my fellow American citizens, let us not continue to delude ourselves into thinking we live in a democracy.

As a retired political science professor, we most assuredly do not live in a democratic political system. Why? Because twice in this century alone and four times in American history, the person who received the most votes for president was not elected because of the distortions of the Electoral College.

As of Nov. 14, Hillary Clinton received 61,039,676 votes (48 percent of total votes cast) and Donald Trump received 60,371,193 votes (47 percent of the total). Yet, the Electoral College victor was Donald Trump.

Had this election been held in a parliamentary democracy like Canada or England, Clinton would have won because she got more votes than the other candidates.

The Electoral College may have made sense when ordinary Americans could not get timely national news or lacked enough education to sort out the complex issues of an election. But those conditions no longer apply in the 21st century.

Yet, this elitist artifact of oligarchy still persists. We can no longer afford 18th century oligarchy. It holds the nation back and makes us a laughingstock among the world’s democracies.

The Electoral College serves no purpose in a nation that purports to be a democracy, and it is specious to defend it because it protects minorities and small states since in an authentic democracy, people are represented, not arbitrary lines on a map.

If we want a truly democratic political system, a giant first step in that direction would be to abolish the Electoral College and simply have Americans vote directly for president.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 12:30 PM with the headline "Abolish outdated Electoral College."