The Electoral College: It's Time To Graduate Already!
by Thomas M. Pender
 
I’m not up on my current events, admittedly.  At the last Presidential election, I had to wait until the next day and check my email at work to see who won.  Newspapers, cable, home internet . . . they cost money.  Radio?  Every channel is now a gabfest, snoozefest, commercialfest, or noisefest, none of which ever get around to telling their listeners what’s going on in the world!
 
So when I was discussing the ’08 election with a friend, I ignorantly said “Isn’t it great that we know real numbers of voters, and don’t need that ridiculous electoral college process anymore?”  My friend blinked at me, and filled me in on my mistake.
 
An electoral college, still functioning in 2008, in the age of satellites, cell phones, internet and instant messaging?  It leads one to ask a question:
 
WHY?
 
Even the description of the college’s purpose seems ridiculous in the modern world.  Per Wikipedia: “Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, United States citizens vote for electors. Electors are technically free to vote for anyone eligible to be President, but in practice pledge to vote for specific candidate and voters cast ballots for favored presidential and vice presidential candidates by voting for correspondingly pledged electors.”
 
Did you catch that free to vote for anyone eligible to be President part?  This alone makes the concept ridiculous.  Supposedly, your state’s electors, one for each Senator and Representative, are sent to vote for the candidate who your state, by democratic popular vote majority, has elected.  However, if Billy Elector has a migraine, or likes how the also-ran dresses better than the duly elected nominee, he can vote as he chooses!  Immediately, this process is exposed as flawed.
 
Not only flawed, but archaic and useless.  The electoral college was originally conceived in the 1780s as a way for the few and spread-out American landowners to cast votes for officials.  The individual burgs voted, then a representative was sent to Washington, D.C. to vote for that community.  It was a simple idea, and for its time, it worked well and carried out an important function.
 
This is not the 1780s.  This is not the 1880s, nor even the 1980s!  This is the age of instant information.  We could each conceivably press a button to elect an official, and have our individual votes appear on a screen in Washington, and instantly tallied.  The days of riding horseback for days to cast a vote isn’t really in the mix anymore.
 
The electoral college was fashioned in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.  I understand it’s a time-honored tradition, but these days, that’s all it is!  Apparently, several Constitutional amendments have been proposed to replace or mothball the college, but none have ever passed Congressional vote.  Why?  Because it’s cute?  Because that’s how Thomas Jefferson was elected?  Can’t we appreciate the modern technological magic of actually being able to count individual citizens’ votes, and realize that once the polls close and the computers have completed their tallies, we have already elected our representatives?
 
Our forefathers were intelligent, forward-thinking individuals who deserve to be remembered and honored and respected, no question.  However, I don’t think they would want 21st Century Americans to turn down patenting the modern toilet in favor of their beloved chamber pots, nor do I believe they would wish us to vote for representatives to then go vote for us, when we have the ability to vote for ourselves so instantly and accurately.