The Persisting Undemocratic Electoral System in America
Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 13th, 2016.
Salaroche


When will blind, stubborn, block-headed, outdated ineffective electoral traditions give the right of way to reason and real Democracy in the United States? When will the hopeless Electoral College system be finally discarded and sent to the graveyard of ineffectual ideas?

Here we are once again in the year 2016 witnessing another instance in which the voice of a majority of voters was annulled by an archaic no-longer-logical electoral system. While Trump won the election by a margin of ±60 electoral votes, Clinton won the election by a margin of ±600,000 popular votes.

The majority of Americans voted for Clinton for president, but the Electoral College basically overturned that result and handed the presidency to Trump. Does that feel like real Democracy to you? Not to me.

And this is the second time in this century that such undemocratic system sends an unelected president to the White House and the fifth time this happens since 1824 (That year the House of Representatives decided the election in favor of J. Q. Adams)

This is a serious non-partisan issue. I voted pro-democrat once again this year (I had no other choice) but this is not a sour-grapes denunciation of the Electoral College. This is a call to reason and respect for the American electorate, regardless of their political affiliation.

Aren’t five times of overturning the will of the people enough to finally admit that the Electoral College system is seriously flawed?  Isn’t it time we got rid of it and implemented a system of direct vote in the United States?

When will we ever learn?

Salaroche