Flunking the Electoral College

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/opinion/20thu1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=flunking%20the%20electoral%20college&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 7:28 PM
Subject: Flunking the Electoral College
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The Electoral College was invented with a two-fold task.  First, it reassured the smaller states that they couldn't be trampled by New York and Virginia. Second, it reined in the whims of a populace that might be imperfectly informed on the issues of the day or on the candidates. In the 21st century, those small states still enjoy disproportionate power in the senate, and will block any effort to take that power from them. As to the second point, I am reminded that it was this newspaper that withheld news of illegal domestic wiretapping from the electorate when we voted in the presidential election of 2004.  The crises of the last years might have followed a very different course had the press given the electorate full information on the issues of the day.

Barry Levine