Letter: Electoral College as archaic as slavery itself

Friday, Nov. 23, 2001 | 9:11 a.m.

The time has come for Americans to have the equal right to elect their presidents. The only way to achieve this is by eliminating the Electoral College.

Those who argue for its retention do so either out of historical ignorance or self-interest. The argument that the Constitution's writers created the Electoral College to protect the smaller states is true in generality, yet false in specifics.

At the time of the Constitutional Convention "small" did not pertain necessarily to geography, but instead to voting population. As such, the Southern slave states were the "small" states. With all blacks and many poor whites denied the vote, the Southern states were at a vast disadvantage in controlling the election of national officers.

Fearing the Northern states could easily control the political process of abolishing slavery through direct election, Southern delegates favored removing the office of president (as the office of senator) from the influence of a majority vote. Thus, they supported the Electoral College system, which based voting power on a state's Congressional representation, and thus boosted the Southern vote through the 3/5 clause. This then allowed the Southern states to continue restricting voting rights, while simultaneously protecting slavery.

Following the Civil War, the conservative minority found that the Electoral College system continued to over-represent their rural voting base and to this day remains the main obstacle for abolishing a voting system that once protected human bondage.

The Electoral College represents the antithesis of democracy and, therefore, must go.

SONDRA COSGROVE