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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesWriter Says Electoral College Balances the Vote

Writer Says Electoral College Balances the Vote

Dear Source,
I agree wholeheartedly with your September 17 "Source" political analysis of the 2004 primary election, except for the reference to the 2000 election. See "Political Analysis: Lessons of This Primary Election").
With yet another national election coming, we will hear a renewed discussion of the Electoral College and the need for reform via a constitutional amendment. Our V.I. status, which doesn't allow us a say in the presidential choice, echoes this issue.
The Civics 101 you referred to and an electorate, which you described as not particularly up to date on issues, also pointed out the wisdom of the electoral-college system.
The Founding Fathers were inspired to have written into our constitution the fix for just the sort of apathetic voters we see today. They realized the people are sometimes prone to follow demagoguery and in the heat of such times vote irrationally.
The solution was, of course, the Electoral College, which weighs both popular vote and greatly on broad multi-regional support.
This system prevented (for good or bad) Al Gore from winning with his support based just in highly populated areas and aided Bush whose support was vast in the nation as a whole. Bush won large majorities of the counties of America and numbers of states, which are really the "citizens" of the United States of America.
To win in the presidential election, no small towns may be overlooked in favor of the population centers. Regardless of your or my opinion on the right choice for president, I firmly believe the system is a good one and should be protected.
Terry Conklin
Coral Bay

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