As we prepare for our next presidential election, candidates are announcing their campaigns for various offices. Once again that relic from the past known as the Electoral College overshadows the process.
I grew up, as did many Americans, supposing that every four years, we, the American people elected or re-elected our president, to oversee our government until the next presidential election. After a period of turmoil following that terrifying attack on the capitol the day of the 2021 electoral vote counting, more of us now understand that the election is only the first step in the process. The new presidential term begins only after the Electoral College meets in January and certifies the results of the November election.
Perhaps the problem is that the founders of the United States were not whole heartedly into the idea of the people actually ruling themselves. Better if they elected, not the president, but only supposedly wise men (at the time, only men voted and only for male candidates) who would then decide on the president.
That idea had fallen into a kind of quaint custom of the electoral college meeting in January to calmly put the final stamp on the person we the people thought we had elected in November. Then, of course, the country discovered that the quaint custom opened up the idea of a few people pushing the electors to elect who they wanted, regardless of the election numbers. Turmoil ensued, the aftermath of which we are still living through.
Many of us would like to change the Constitution to reflect the more democratic way of electing the president by the voters. Changing the Constitution was made too difficult for that to be done easily.
Perhaps we are stuck for the time being with our antiquated system of the electoral college. Nevertheless, we are certainly free to give serious thought to changing our constitution to reflect the ability of the people to actually elect the president. Perhaps it is time to grow up and go all the way toward a democracy.