National survey on Presidential Selection underway
submitted by Larry P. Arnn, President, Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College is conducting a National Survey on Presidential Selection.
By completing this survey and returning it as soon as possible, you will help Hillsdale College more clearly understand the views of mainstream Americans concerning this issue—views we will make available to policymakers and opinion leaders.
You can complete the National Survey on Presidential Selection by going to https://lp.hillsdale.edu/electoral-college-survey
For most of our nation’s history, the Electoral College, as devised by the Framers of our Constitution, was not controversial. Indeed, it was considered essential to preserving free and representative government.
But today, more than a dozen states have joined together in an attempt to undermine this constitutional bulwark of liberty.
This movement to undermine the Constitution has grown largely because of the failure of America’s schools to provide young people with a proper grounding in American civics—too many Americans simply don’t understand the importance of the Constitution, including the Electoral College, to liberty.
Because of this, Hillsdale College has expanded its educational mission on behalf of liberty nationwide, directly teaching millions of Americans in all 50 states.
These efforts, which aim to counter the Left’s domination over most of our schools, include:
• Teaching millions of citizens nationwide through free online courses, such as “Constitution 101” and “The Great American Story: A Land of Hope;”
• Reaching over 5.6 million households and businesses nationwide with Imprimis , Hillsdale’s free digest of liberty;
• Promoting constitutional education through social media outlets popular with young people;
• Sending millions of pocket-size copies of America’s founding documents to citizens and K-12 schools across America, as well as to members of our armed forces; and
• Restoring excellence to K-12 education through Hillsdale’s Barney Charter School Initiative, which launches and provides guidance to classical K-12 charter schools nationwide.
Your answers to the National Survey on Presidential Selection will help Hillsdale form the most effective strategy to educate millions of Americans about the importance of the Constitution to liberty—including the importance of the Electoral College.
And this is especially important in 2020, a critical year for America’s future.
So please share your views on this urgent topic by completing our National Survey on Presidential Selection and returning it as soon as possible. It will only take a few minutes of your time.
You can take the survey using the secure link at https://lp.hillsdale.edu/electoral-college-survey
Do not mess with our Constitution. Those wanting to do away with the Electoral College do so so cheating can occur. It is a power grab!
Absolutely the electoral college is antiquated and now actively subverts the will of the majority. If you live in California, for instance, your vote means less than someone in a far less populous state (Wyoming for instance). That is the definition of unconstitutional.
Hillsdale’s survey on the electoral college is not a legitimate survey. By providing very limited answers from which to choose, it’s obvious that it is an attempt to force a choice that agrees with the college’s biases. There is no desire to truly survey attitudes, but rather to shape them. It cuts off analysis of factors like gerrymandering that can thwart the intent of the electoral college. This is not reflective of good scholarship.
It originally functioned as a means for getting the smaller States to ratify the Constitution. It does serve its function of making Presidential candidates campaign in all of the states, so that every voters voice is heard. However basing the electoral college on the number of representatives for each state allows the smaller states to have a larger voice than the more populated states. It has always been an anti-democratic vehicle, along with the two senators by state allows for minority rule.
“Do you believe the Electoral College helps or hinders the election of our president?” This is a nonsensical question, so it cannot form the valid way to introduce a survey. The Electoral College (EC) is a means to elect the president, in fact, it has been the sole means used since 1788. Let’s ask, “Do you think a traditional toothbrush helps or hinders keeping your teeth healthy?” One could answer that it helps in certain respects and hinders in others? The natural reaction is to ask, “As compared to what?” Electric toothbrush, waterpick, etc? Your question makes as much sense as asking sn Iraqi in the 1980’s or 1990’s, “Do you think our voting procedure helps or hinders the election of the president?” It certainly helped to keep re-electing Sadam, but was it democratic, was it an good means to effectuate the will of the people, are there better means? How about asking the following: “Do you consider the EC an effective system for choosing a president in a way that democratically reflects the will of the people?” Why not ask that question? Isn’t that what a system for electing the president should do? You don’t ask it that way because this utterly tendentious article is an attempt to foist upon people the view that the EC is a “constitutional bulwark of liberty” and “essential to preserving free and representative government”, indeed any effort to reform our system for electing the president is “a movement to undermine the Constitution” due to a lack of civic education informing (indoctrinating) young people of the importance of the EC to liberty. Well, instead of merely repeating again and again this assertion, why don’t you justify it. Explain why it is essential to our liberty and how any other system would undermine liberty. In all of your blather you don’t bother making that essential point. I hear often that if we had an election based solely on popular vote then candidates would ignore most states. I don’t accept that point. As it is now, it’s clear from political commentators that the only states that matter are the 6-8 swing states. Sorry, but I wholeheartedly agree with K. Trinity’s comment, and I have to conclude that your endeavor is purely propaganda.
If one subscribes to the premise that the President should be democratically elected, then all votes of citizens should have equal weight. That would require replacing the antiquated Electoral College mode of election with a popular vote across the whole country. The Electoral College was devised as a political sop to small states to capture their agreement to the union, it is not democratic. Civics education is a commendable aim for schools so that students can understand this quirk of historical politics to allow a re-thinking of our election system to become more democratic.
To achieve a democratic outcome many nations have an initial vote. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority of the popular vote then a run-off election is held between the top two candidates, to ensure that the winner achieves an absolute majority rather than a minority candidate being elected with much less than a majority of the nation’s support.
A run-off election is not necessary in more modern democratic nations that use a preferential voting system in which the voter gives preferences 1 – N for the N candidates on the ballot. That allows their vote to go to the next most popular candidate if their preferred candidate has no hope of achieving a majority. That can avoid the problem about a third or fourth party candidate being a spoiler for a candidate who would otherwise have received their vote had the third or fourth party not been on the ballot. For example, in the Electoral College system if candidate A receives 45% of the vote candidate B receives 42% and C receives the remaining 13%, then in the EC system Candidate A is likely to be elected despite the possibility that almost all of those who voted for C would then vote for B if C was not on the ballot. In other words if there were a run-off election between A and B, the outcome could be that A gets 47% and B gets 53%, the clear democratic winner. Without a run-off election or preferential voting, which accomplishes the same outcome without an additional election, the Electoral College system in NOT truly democratic.
The electoral college is the only way for proper representation!
I believe the electoral college should stay forever!