The Importance Of The Electoral College

" .... I here give you an example of what could, and would in fact have happened on November 8, 2016 if we had a national popular election instead of the Electoral College. This, I hope, will help one understand the true wisdom of the writers of our constitution. These numbers were put together on November 28 and there might have been a small number of votes still being tabulated in a few counties across some states. Sources are, Election results from The Associated Press, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, and The Cook Political Report:

The total popular vote count shows Donald Trump won the popular vote in 30 states and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 20 states plus D.C.. The total count for all states, Trump was 62,510,659,------Clinton was 64,817,808. the difference is Clinton winning by 2,307,149. However, totaling all states excluding California, Donald Trump won the popular vote. In California the vote count was Clinton...8,292,775----Trump...4,276,750. Now, let's deduct Clinton's California vote from her national vote..64,817,808 - 8,292,775 = 56,525,033.Now let's deduct Trump's California vote from his national vote..62,510,659 - 4,276,750 = 58,233,909. The difference is Trump winning by 1,708,876.

       So, in effect, Hillary Clinton was elected president of California and Donald Trump was elected president of the rest of the country by a substantial margin. This is the finest example I can relate to you of the wisdom of the Electoral College system of electing the American President. It prevents the vote of any one densely populated state from overriding the vote of all the others. Ask yourself, "Do I really want California, or any other state, electing the president for the rest of us?" Without the Electoral College that is exactly what will happen."


John Porter
Harrison, Arkansas

Thank you, I am sure this will go over the heads of many here.

I tried to explain this concept to the willfully ignorant who were insisting that as Clinton had won the popular vote she somehow had been cheated by Trump.   They simply refused to listen or acknowledge that the system that had been in place for some 200 years had not suddenly been set up purely to cheat Clinton of her rightful victory.