Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the Electoral College? I’ve felt that way for a long time, but there’s nothing like a contentious election to remind me of how much and why. I recently saw some social media posts in which Rhode Island Republicans were talking about how worried they were that Democrats would get rid of the EC. And yeah, I realize that the EC sometimes hands Rhode Island Republicans the results that they want, but I still don’t think that they ought to support it.
The way I see it, because RI Republicans never reach the winning threshold, the EC renders all of their votes meaningless. The same is true for all Democratic votes above the threshold needed to win. So, every election there will be hundreds of thousands of votes cast in Rhode Island that make absolutely no difference in who wins the presidency, but only because the votes are cast here. If we could instead cast them in another state, they might be decisive.
How unfair that is! Votes cast in other states matter more than ours. And how unfair it is when the EC hands the presidency to the candidate with fewer votes!
The EC also does Rhode Islanders wrong in another way. Because we have only 4 electoral votes, we’re not a make-it-or-break-it state, and we’re consequently ignored most of the time. In fact, because we’re considered to be a guaranteed win for the Democrats, candidates of both parties ignore us. The Democrats take us for granted, and the Republicans can’t be bothered to fight for us. That is not right.
So I hate the EC all the time and especially at election time. But I’ve never hated it more than I do now. We are once again in the middle of an election where it’s clear who won the popular vote, but less certain who won the Electoral College. This country can’t handle any uncertainties right now. If things go badly over the next few days, the Electoral College will be partly to blame, and it’s past time we got rid of it. No more EC!
