In a nation composed of 13 states, jealous of their own rights and powers, and suspicious of any central government, how do you go about electing a president for all of the people? This was the dilemma our Founding Fathers had to solve.

Most people of that time, thought political parties were mischievous, if not downright evil, which may still be the case, and that gentlemen should not campaign for office. A number of choices were proposed, but most were turned down or rejected because they were too controversial or impossible to enact.

Finally an agreement was reached and the “College of Electors” was born. Each state was allocated a number of electors equal to the number of U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives (which may change every decade according to the Census results.)

This was a time when only men could vote. Women could not, and slavery was well under way. All in all, this was an elaborate scheme, but a very clever one when you consider that the whole operation was supposed to work without political parties and without national campaigns.

In other words, this outmoded form of picking a president, which denies the average voter the right to have his/her vote count has long outlived its usefulness and should be abolished.

Today, with all the many separate forms of communication available to the public, there is absolutely no reason for an average voter to need someone else to make up his/her mind about which candidate to choose.

Don’t you find it strange that all of the politicians urge you to vote, to cast your ballot and let them know what your choice is? Then on election day, when all those votes are counted your vote is negated by someone in the Electoral College because he is committed to elect someone you did not vote for.

Makes you wonder what the hell is going on, doesn’t it?

The right to vote is an inherent right of citizenship, and no politician, no political party, no Electoral College, no government lackey and no court has the legal or moral right to stand up to the people of this country and tell them that their vote does not count in any federal election. This is the United States of America, the land of free choice, the country where the majority is supposed to rule, and sooner or later right and reason will prevail. Sooner or later the people will have restored to them their right to a vote that actually counts.

If you have had enough of politicians fumbling and bumbling their way in Washington, D.C., and many of our separate states, don’t you think is is about time to tell them to take their asinine Electoral College and stick it where the sun don’t shine? Let’s do away with this antiquated, useless and unneeded politically motivated way of overriding the popular vote of the people, no matter which side you are on.

Larry Wakefield

Aberdeen