Thomas Joseph McDermott: Why allow small-state voters more power than the rest of us?

Re “California, NY don’t deserve to pick” (Letters, Feb. 19): In this letter, the author seemed to think that my opinion matters less than that of someone living in the less-populous parts of the country. However, this seems utterly antithetical to the idea of “one person, one vote,” which is one of our highest principles in this land when it comes to the election of public officials.

This letter points to the ideas of the Founding Fathers giving smaller states more power than larger states. However, in my (albeit limited) knowledge of the topic, it seems the Founding Fathers’ sole aim was to keep those unfit for public service out of electoral office by instituting a safe-guard called the electoral college.

However, I would point out that in that time, a majority of Americans couldn’t read, much less pick a candidate for office. Modern Americans are far better educated than those who came before us, and so this safe-guard hardly seems necessary. Indeed, having this system in place does nothing but reduce the opinions of those living in more populous areas relative to the opinions of others. Does that sound like an American ideal to you?

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Thomas Joseph McDermott: Why allow small-state voters more power than the rest of us?."