I am writing in regard to the presidential election. How is it that George W. Bush has come to be our president-elect, yet Al Gore received the nation’s popular vote? Why is it that we have someone as our president who the majority of the nation didn’t vote for? I can tell you why: the Electoral College.
Here’s a little background on it. The process was adopted in 1789 when the Constitution was written. At that time it was put in use because only important landowners and city officials were allowed to vote.
Only three times in history has the loser of the popular vote been our president. In 1824 Andrew Jackson won the popular vote, yet John Quincy Adams received the electoral votes, and won the election. In 1876 Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote and Rutherford B. Hayes won the election. And in 1888 Grover Cleveland won the popular vote, and Benjamin Harrison won the election. There has not been another election like that for over 100 years, until now. So my question to the world is: Why do we still have the Electoral College if everyone votes, not just land owners and city officials? Abolishing the Electoral College would be democracy’s ideal, and isn’t that what we are supposed to be living by – a democracy?
Everett
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