Electoral College isn’t what’s wrong with our democracy

57 percent, are U.S. citiof liberalism. These factors zens. Only about 11 perdepressed turnout. If there cent (840,000) are undochad been more exciteumented and the rest are ment, increased turnout either legal permanent in this heavily Democratic residents or hold at least a state might have pushed temporary visa. Hillary Clinton’s nation

Their prosperity and wide popular vote marour nation’s prosperity gin over 3 million. And this are linked. That’s why we still would not really matneed to reset the nationalter. mentality regarding immiPolitical hypochondrigration. It’s why Silicon acs say, with more indigValley executives and nation than precision, that employees have been so the nation’s 58th presidenoffended by the anti-imtial election was the fifth migrant emotions drawn in which the winner lost out during the presidenthe popular vote. In 1824, tial campaign. They know however, before the emerthe value of skilled foreign gence of the party sysworkers — their value to tem, none of the four canbusiness enterprises and didates received a majorthe economy. ity, and the House of Rep

It’s a sad indication of resentatives chose John the wrong direction this Quincy Adams even country has taken that though Andrew Jackson The New York Times has won more popular votes started a column called — 38,149 more, although “This Week in Hate” to only about 350,000 of the catalog incidents that approximately 4 million offend the values we white males eligible to vote Americans claim to hold did so. dear. In 1876, Rutherford B.

Hate divides us and Hayes won the electoral weakens our democracy. vote even though SamIt also costs us, and that — uel J. Tilden won 254,694 if nothing else — ought to more of the 8,411,618 popubring us to our senses. lar votes cast. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison won the electoral vote 233-168 even though President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote by 89,293 out of 11,395,083 votes cast. In both years, however, exuberant fraud on both sides probably involved more votes than the victory margins.

So, two of the five 21st-century elections (2000 and 2016) are the only clear and pertinent instances, since the emergence of the party sys- George F. Will

Political mildness is scarce nowadays, so it has been pleasantly surprising that post-election denunciations of the Electoral College have been tepid. This, even though the winner of the presidential election lost the popular vote by perhaps 2.8 million votes, more than five times the 537,179 votes by which Al Gore outpolled George W. Bush in 2000.

In California, where Democrats effortlessly harvest 55 electoral votes (more than one-fifth of 270), this year’s winner was never in doubt. There was no gubernatorial election to excite voters. And the contest for the U.S. Senate seat was between two Democrats representing faintly variant flavors tem in 1828, of the winner of the popular vote losing the presidency. Two is 40 percent of five elections, which scandalizes only those who make a fetish of simpleminded majoritarianism.

Those who demand direct popular election of the president should be advised that this is what we have — in 51 jurisdictions. And the electoral vote system quarantines electoral disputes. Imagine the 1960 election under direct popular election: John Kennedy’s vote margin over Richard Nixon was just 118,574. If all 68,838,219 popular votes had been poured into a single bucket, there would have been powerful incentives to challenge the results in many of the nation’s 170,000 precincts.

Far from being an unchanged anachronism, frozen like a fly in 18th-century amber, the Electoral College has evolved, shaping and shaped by the party system.

The 48 elections since 1824 have produced 18 presidents that received less than 50 percent of the popular vote. The greatest of them, Abraham Lincoln, received 39.9 percent in 1860. So now that the electors have cast their votes in their respective states, actually making Donald Trump the president-elect, remember: Do not blame the excellent electoral vote system for the 2016 choice that was the result of other, and seriously defective, aspects of America’s political process.