New York Times: Abolish the Electoral College

The New York Times > Opinion > NY Times: Abolish the Electoral College

The main problem with the Electoral College is that it builds into every election the possibility, which has been a reality three times since the Civil War, that the president will be a candidate who lost the popular vote. This shocks people in other nations who have been taught to look upon the United States as the world's oldest democracy...

About time this got on the front burner.

I'm still in shock that in the 21st Century the American people are so docile about the fact that the guy who got less votes took office. I remember explaining this to a group of Russians who visited our office. And they LAUGHED at me. Russians, who've had maybe 10 years of democracy in the last thousand, laughing at an American about democracy.

Even the Democrats who complain are upset about Florida, not about the Electoral College. And no prominent Republican will endorse an end to the Electoral College because it's a tacit admission of Bush's illegitimacy.

I have mixed feelings about Colorado's split-the-electors referendum. No minor tinkering will solve the fundamental problem.