By Christopher Ross, Addison Independent
To get a sense of why the Electoral College is criticized so heavily these days, one need only consider that Republican Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 despite losing the popular vote by 2,868,686 ballots.
In other words, the Electoral College system had the equivalent effect of erasing every vote cast for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Vermont plus 12 other small states, plus one congressional district of a 13th, plus the District of Columbia.
Many predict that this November’s presidential election will produce a similar result.
“Much more likely (than Trump winning the popular vote) would be the same outcome as in 2016 — Trump losing the popular vote to the Democratic candidate, but winning enough electoral votes to be re-elected,” wrote Eric L. Davis, professor emeritus of political science at Middlebury College, in the Addison Independent this past April.
If this comes to pass, it would be the third time in the last six presidential elections that a Republican candidate was elected despite losing the popular vote.
So what is this Electoral College, exactly, where did it come from and why do we still have it?
These were among several questions that retired history teacher Jeff Johnson attempted to answer on Thursday, Feb. 13, in a talk called “History Matters: The Evolution of the Presidential Election Process,” which he gave at the Bristol Firehouse.
Johnson has offered courses on the election process every 4 years since 2008. Now retired and living in Castleton, he gives monthly history talks at Eastview.
Johnson divided “History Matters,” into three subtopics:
The roots of the Electoral College system.
Historical forces that have dramatically altered the original concepts behind the Electoral College.
Reasons the Electoral College is so unpopular today and movements to abolish or reform it.
Watch it at bit.ly/JeffJohnsonHistory
