(The content of this communication is entirely my own and does not reflect the opinions of or endorsement by any federal agency or the government as a whole.)
A few years back, I was in Justice Breyer’s chambers at the Supreme Court helping him with a speech when the topic of Bush v. Gore came up. He didn’t have to explain his position -- he had signed onto the dissent. But he wanted to make the point that despite this critical unpopular decision, people did not take to the streets to protest the Court’s decision. There were no riots, no people throwing stones. Of course, it helped that Al Gore had conceded the election the next day. But I decided to keep that to myself.
So here we are, sixteen years later and for the fifth time in U.S. history, a presidential candidate has won the White House while losing the popular vote. In all instances, the Democratic nominee ended up the loser. But the problem is elsewhere. As more and more people move to cities, the urban vote will get increasingly diluted. What just happened in Pennsylvania and other swing states will undoubtedly become the new norm.
So at a time when leaders on both sides call to unite behind Mr. Trump, there is a growing sense among millions of Americans that their vote didn’t count -- that their voice is not heard. And they are taking to the streets peacefully, at least for now.
Many will say that now is not the time to question the election process, that it can wait. But we have waited long enough. In a speech given at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on July 19, 1787, James Madison said that with a popular vote, the Southern states “could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes.”
How’s that for democracy?
Both candidates talked about fixing the country’s economy, infrastructure, or social security. It is now time to fix the Electoral College system.
It won’t be easy: Only a constitutional amendment, or the convening of a constitutional convention will do away with it. But there are fewer hurdles now that the same party controls both the House and the Senate, with their leader who once said that “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.”