Letters From Dan

This 2008 election results map showing the actual Obama / McCain results by County is quite telling. It’s exactly what the founding father’s predicted would happen someday and is why they created the electoral college.

First, let’s describe the areas that are blue, the areas where Obama was victorious. Is it safe and factual to say he didn’t win middle America? You could actually make the case that he was most successful with people who lived near water, Canada and Mexico. You could make the case that big cities voted for him. Look at Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso in Texas. Now look at the rest of the state. But by looking at this map alone, you couldn’t make the case that he won a majority of America.

So let’s go back before the election, let’s go back to the days Obama was looking at running for President. Suppose he knew which counties he’d win and which he’d lose – and knowing that suppose he spent 100% of his time in only those counties. If that was the case, he never would have stepped foot in Oklahoma. That’s what the electoral college is designed to prevent.

While election results like these were a pipe dream back in 1776, if the electoral college weren’t part of the fabric of our society, you could use a mathematical equation to figure out which cities to campaign in. You could probably concentrate on the east coast, California, Texas and a few states in between and come out with a majority of Americans voting for you.

That would completely break down our democratic system and likely result in civil war or secession from the Union or worse. Politicians could promise New Yorkers that they’d put all the nuclear power plants, all the federal prisons, all the garbage dumps and relocate all the welfare recipients to Oklahoma.  And they would be unable to do anything about it. If a president only had to win the majority of America’s vote – Oklahoma, Maine, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Washington State, Hawaii and Alaska would never be represented. Their “pursuit of happiness” would not be protected.

This 2008 election results map shows that you don’t have to win a majority of counties, cities, acres, or even states to be President. If our system ever reverted to a popular vote system, you wouldn’t even need to visit most of them.  Since the founding fathers were quite steeped in the “Taxation without Representation” idea, they created a wonderful system to help avoid that inevitability. The electoral college.

Teach your kids why the electoral college is important. Because of it Presidential Candidates have to fly to every state and attempt to be heard by that state’s people. If all they had to do was win a majority of the states, that too would keep politicians campaigning in fewer places.

I don’t normally write about “contentious” topics as this one is. So leave a comment, be civil and help me understand your thoughts. I’d love to hear the bad points about the electoral college, because I can’t think of too many.

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