Scott Moore: Electoral College still an effective method

In response to the Nov. 12 letter “Dissolve Electoral College”: I would like to argue that the college is still valid and important. The purpose and design of the college is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority and to ensure that all states get attention from our presidential candidates.

Our great state of North Carolina has only recently become a “battleground state,” and we have vacillated from Democrat to Republican for the last several elections.

To further emphasize the importance of the Electoral College, one needs only look at the election result maps for the elections from 1988 through 2016.

In 2000, for example, the map is mostly red; even though Al Gore won the popular vote. A straight popular vote allows highly populated states to have a greater influence than the other states. In 2008 the map was mostly blue, in 2012 it was still mostly blue, but slightly less so, and in 2016 it is mostly red.

The Electoral College, although odd and different than other countries, is still a valid method for ensuring that our president focuses on the whole country and not just selective pockets. Or look at it this way, most of the “democratic” countries that have a dictator use popular vote as the mechanism for election. Is that what we really want?

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Scott Moore: Electoral College still an effective method."