Ken Oyer: Don’t discount the wisdom of our founders or the Electoral College
Re “Why can’t Americans directly elect a president?” (Online, Sept. 18) and “Let’s disqualify more candidates” (Letters, Sept. 18): The two letters I am responding to imply the Electoral College has outlived its usefulness because people weren’t intelligent enough to know which candidate would be best for them when it was established.
It is recorded that literacy in those days was 90 percent! Have you attempted to read the writings of Thomas Paine or others of that period? These early citizens were capable and motivated to know what governmental system they were receiving. It was not a democracy! How many votes did George Washington receive in the first two elections? Zero. He was appointed by the Electoral College.
Like many of our Constitution protections, the Electoral College protects a minority from the majority. Example: Though Hillary Clinton won the vote tally, The Associated Press finds that Clinton won 489 counties nationwide, compared with 2,623 for President Donald Trump. Small counties with low populations were protected from counties with huge populations. I read today the 36 percent of those polled could not name one of the protections of the First Amendment. I wish citizens today were as literate and interested as they were in 1776!
Ken Oyer, Turlock
This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Ken Oyer: Don’t discount the wisdom of our founders or the Electoral College."