A Touch of Brilliance

To those of us who consider the Electoral College a really bad idea that has more than overstayed its welcome, I bring a touch of hope.

The scrapping of the electoral college, which violates the principle of one man, one vote, by skewing the impact that low population states have on the election, is long overdue. However supporters of election reform have despaired over the difficulty of getting a constitutional amendment passed which would switch the presidential election to popular vote partially because low population states enjoy an even greater disparity of impact in the amendment process.

Now it appears someone has come up with what I can only call a brilliant scheme for both circumventing the Electoral College and getting around the difficulty of the amendment process. Since the Constitution gives each state the right to decide how its electoral votes get awarded, the proposal is for the states to pass legislation that will award its votes to the winner of the national popular vote!

Once states with 270 electoral votes choose this method of award, the electoral college would effectively become defunct because the winner of the popular vote would be guaranteed to win the election.

Aren't human beings wonderfully creative? I'm impressed.