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Ronald Hanson
Thank you, Ellen, Debbie and all of our Classmates whose family members have served.
Furthering the conversation about the Electoral College, as I understand it, our Founding Fathers were intent upon forming a union both of individual states and of there peoples. This is reflected in the compromise that gave each state the same number of senators while giving representation in the House based upon population. The Electoral College carries this idea forward in the context of presidential elections. In each case, the result is a representative, rather than a pure, democracy. The disparity between the popular and the electoral vote most recently in the Electoral College tally for Gore and Clinton, however, was not so much caused by providing each state (and DC) with two 'extra' electors, it is primarily caused by most states choosing to award electors on a winner-take-all basis, rather than proportionately (as is the case in the House of Representatives, where representatives are elected by districts, although, once again, within a district, the representative is the one candidate having the most votes).
But the Electoral College mechanics is but one of the tensions that threatens the goal of Americans to have a 'more perfect union'. The concept of Statesmanship, upon which a representative democracy depends, has in recent times given way to partisanship and single issue politics. We're in this together - let's hope for the best.
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