A Gift from Our Fathers: The Electoral College

... I gotta disagree. First of all, this whole birth certificate boomlet is a sham. He's shown the BC, he's a citizen. We need to let this go, it's making us look like a bunch of conspiracy wingnuts.

But on the larger picture, the Electoral College: it also is an idea whose time has come... and gone. The reason? It is simply too easy for fraud to change the outcome of the election using the Electoral College versus the popular vote.

All you have to look at is the close elections where several hundred thousand, or even several million, votes separated the candidates nationwide, yet only a few thousand votes in a couple of states (or, in 2004, ONE state -- Ohio) could have decided the election the other way, contrary to the "will of the people". Which is an easier fraud to enact: a few hundred thou or a million votes, or 500 votes in Ohio? Pretty simple.

Plus, in various states the person in charge of certifying the election, setting the rules for recounts, etc. is a partisan official. It is much easier to control the vote counting apparatus of one or two states than to execute a highly coordinated effort nationwide.

No, it is time to ditch the EC, much as we ditched other "gifts" from our Founding Fathers, like denying the vote to women or blacks or non-owners of property.