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THE MYTH OF ONE MAN, ONE VOTE IN AMERICA
By H. David Blalock
If nothing else was accomplished in this last presidential election, it was definitively shown that there is no such thing as "one man, one vote" in the United States of America.
The electoral college was established at the acceptance of the Constitution under Article II, Section I. This provided, the founding fathers assumed, a method for the people to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. The House of Representatives would then elect the President from the candidates, with the candidate receiving second place becoming Vice President. Although the voting procedure was changed in 1804 by the 12th Amendment, the process has remained unchanged since. The state legislatures choose electors through popular vote and the electors then should cast their vote according to the majority of the popular vote in their states. However, no elector is constitutionally required to do so, and there have been numerous defections from the popular vote as recently as 1988.
There are any number of reasons given by its supporters to retain the electoral college, but for the most part it boils down to "we've just always done it that way." The electoral college was designed to allow Congress retention of final authority as to who might be elected President. Given that at the time of the Constitutional Congress most people were more concerned with mere survival than the intricacies of political intrigue, this might be forgiven. That this system has not been changed to reflect the growing intelligence and ability of the American public is not forgiveable. Now that third party representatives look as if they may actually start giving the American people viable and sensible alternatives to the pap of the majority parties, they find themselves locked out of the elective process simply because the electoral college system forbids a third party candidate from winning an election.
What it really boils down to is, who should elect the President and Vice President of the United States of America?
Argument has been made that the sheer number of votes involved in a nationwide election would make any other system than the electoral college too difficult to maintain. Such argument is the worst kind of dissembling. In an economic system that supports the shipping, receiving, inventory, and tracking of millions of items a day, it is unlikely that there would be much problem with the tracking of ballots. Concerns about security are equally addressed by the reminder that billions of dollars change hands between banks in America every day without problem. The communications, logistics, and security are available for direct election of the President and Vice President by popular vote.
It's time for another Constitutional Amendment. Abolish the electoral college. It's time to free the American people from the tyranny of the past and allow a true "one man, one vote" system.
For further reading:
http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/elctcoll/
http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/elecollg.html
http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc770.asp
http://www.wikman.com/eric/electoralcollege.html
http://claremontmckenna.com/ctd/index.html
http://www.devvy.com/thrdprty_20000303.html
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