Sequim Gazette Editorial and Letters to the Editor

How reliable is the Electoral College for choosing a president?

Since 1824, there have been 47 elections using the Electoral College. But the basis of all votes depends upon the census every 10 years, which always has been unreliable.

The Census Bureau admits that in 1990 it missed some 8.4 million people and counted 4.4 million others twice. In 2000, the shortage was estimated at 3 million, ironically the nearly same number of United States citizens who cannot vote because they do not reside in any of the 51 voting venues (50 states plus the District of Columbia) that comprise an election each four years.

These errors undoubtedly had an impact on the 2000 election and will do so though the 2012 election. The only sure way of determining the true number of eligible voters in each election would be to have a count every four years in advance of each election, but that would not be practicable.

Another significant problem with the Electoral College is that it has no provision for a runoff vote when no candidate has a majority. The Electoral College does not cover itself for such an event.

There have been 18 elections in which the winning candidate did not receive a plurality, and three candidates were elected even though their opponents received more votes than they.



When losers won

Those were:

• The election of 1876 when the winner received 48 percent and the loser 51 percent

• In 1888, when the winner received 47.8 percent of the votes cast and the loser 48.6 percent

• In 2000, as we all know, the winner received 47.9 percent and the loser 48.4 percent of the so-called popular vote (50,455,156 vs. 50,992,335).

The practice of splitting up the voting venues into 51 separate elections forces a significant number of voters to vote for a candidate they did not want.

In 2008, there were 131,273,107 votes counted. Of those, 52,633,800 (40.1percent) were given to the major opponents through "winner take all," which is theft any way you look at it.

As with virtually every election in our nation, there is no way to determine that your vote actually was counted or that it was applied to the candidate you thought you voted for.



Voting with plastic

A practical method of voter tracking is not in use, to my knowledge, since when we vote our selections are sealed and sent usually to an official who is responsible to see that only qualified voters participate.

There is a method, however, for tracking our votes, a method most of us have and continue to use, namely how we purchase things with a credit card. Each card owner must be identified and a card mailed to him or her with a label to call a toll-free number to activate the card.

Once activated, purchases are made by phone as well as in person. Each transaction has a unique registration number to identify that purchase, and no two transactions will have the same number. Thus, each transaction is unique to each card holder.

Likewise, a vote is a value, a value is a number and numbers are transmitted safely electronically millions of times every day worldwide. Thus by establishing a voter-card system issued by the appropriate government agency, each vote could be cast with a unique registration number issued at the time of the election.

Those numbers would be issued at random and the number of registered voters would be equal to the total registration numbers. Thus, there never could be an over-vote.



See your vote tallied

Once used to vote, the card immediately would be canceled until reactivated for the next election.

When the vote is cast, its registration number would be attached to the appropriate candidate. When the election is over, those numbers would be published by ZIP code to help you make sure your vote was properly counted.

Were your number not on the list - and only you will know that number - you could prove your vote was not counted properly. However, it would be very unlikely that such might happen as intercepting or fraudulently using a voter card would be a federal offense in a presidential election.

The method of voter-card voting would avoid the Electoral College altogether because votes could be cast from any location within the appropriate election days, even by touch-tone phone.

It also significantly would facilitate counting votes, as everyone could be vote over a period of a week using universal time, giving everyone a chance to vote without interfering with work or other obstacles to going to a polling place.

With this system, as the votes came in from all over the country, they constantly would be recorded and the last vote would determine the count. Thus, the result would be known instantly, in fairness to everyone.



Jurors, voters and verdicts

Anyone who has participated as a juror will appreciate that there are three stages in making a judgment. The evidence is presented, presided over by a judge to assure accuracy and honesty, then the jury is sequestered to make its deliberation and then the verdict is issued.

Thinking about it, the very same occurs in an election. The candidates make their presentations through electioneering, then the voters deliberate and make their decision by casting their ballots.

The difference is that all political advertising and anything about the election should be prohibited while the voters are deliberating. There is no question about an end to presentation of evidence in a trial, and there should be nothing wrong to forbid continuing electioneering during the deliberation and voting period of the time assigned.

It is not a question of freedom of speech. Electioneering has to end sometime, and that would be the logical time to do so.



Clint Jones is a Sequim resident and inventor of the Dandy Digger weeder. A tireless tilter at windmills, he has proposed changing the Pledge of Allegiance and giving Sequim a phonetic spelling. You can reach him at clintjones@olypen.com or 681-0101.