Esme's Blog: Left Out Of The Electoral College Battle
President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney are focusing all of their time on a handful of states, because the reality of this election is that the winner of the presidency may well lose the popular vote.
If you look at state and national polls, it is possible that Mitt Romney will win the popular vote and lose in the Electoral College.
Right now, in the states Romney is ahead in, he is ahead by significant margins.
In the states the President is likely to win, he is ahead by much smaller margins.
In all states except Nebraska and Maine, it's a winner-take-all rule in the Electoral College. This year, the Electoral College may, for the fourth time in history, elect the President with the fewest popular votes.
The other three times were in 1876 with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, then in 1888 with the election of Benjamin Harrison and again in 2000 with the election of George W. Bush.
The Electoral College was designed by the founding fathers who feared the population was too ignorant to directly elect the President.
Those days have clearly passed.
Maybe it's time for the nation to reconsider the role of the Electoral College.
