The Electoral College

I have always thought the concept of the electoral college was a little weird and I know the majority of Americans want to change or get rid of it, but what Harold Meyerson addresses in his article "The GOP is Trying to Rig the Electoral College," makes me angry. His article in the Washington Post discusses that in Pennsylvania, Senate Majority Leader, Dominic Pileggi (R), has proposed to change the way the electoral college's votes are apportioned to a way that is shifty and down right unacceptable.

Pileggi's idea is to change the state from purely a majority vote awarding all the electoral votes in that state, to each district getting a corresponding electoral vote. At first it sounds fair enough, but it could allow the minority to have more electoral votes. For example, if in his state 200,000 people are crammed into 3 districts who vote for 'president A' and then 50,000 people are spread out in 12 districts who vote for 'president B', then the 200,000 only get 3 electoral votes and the 50,000 would get 12. This results in electing a president based off the votes of a smaller percentage of the population. Perhaps Pileggi thinks he has sound reasoning behind this idea, but the facts speak for themselves. We can not allow a smaller number of people to dictate where electoral votes are going to go. I am concerned with any representative that would support such a proposition. Who are these people we have elected into office to take care of us and why are they taking care of themselves and not the citizens? Somewhere along the way, our entire system created too much room for corruption, which is sad because that is what the founding fathers were trying to prevent.

It is obvious that in this article Harold Meyerson is talking directly to the public about this problem. When it comes down to it, I know very few honest citizens who would be comfortable with Pileggi's proposition. Meyerson wants to rant about this injustice, but he also wants the public to become educated on this topic because with education comes people standing up for what is right. As far as Meyerson's credibility, he has been an editor for a political magazine and for the L.A. Weekly for some time, as well as a radio host. I feel he has quite a political background and his response to this issue is well educated. As far as his claim, I would have to agree with his outrage on this issue; his logic is spot on and his evidence from the sources he references is solid. He did his homework when writing this article and it is hard to believe that Pileggi would even propose such a self-serving idea.