by John Stevenson
Thanks in advance to my
colleague Mike, a 1955 Brooklyn Catholic Youth All Star second baseman who
actually earned a tryout with the Detroit Tigers. I owe Mike for allowing me to borrow from his
knowledge of The Game---of which I have precious little.
Don’t expect this to assuage
the grief or quell the anger of those who believe the recent election should
have been decided by the popular vote.
It will not convert those who believe the Electoral College system is outdated
or undemocratic and should be abolished (good luck with that one). It’s just an
explanation---of sorts.
The
World Series is not a single game, but a series of four to seven individual
games. The team winning the most games wins
the World Series. It makes no difference
which team scores the most runs. Rules
are rules.
In
the 1960 World Series, the losing New York Yankees scored 55 runs---more than
twice as many as the winning Pittsburgh Pirates, who scored only 27 runs. The Yankees won three lop-sided games, while
the Pirates won four close games. But
the total number of runs is irrelevant---the World Champion is the team that
wins the most games.
Our quadrennial presidential
electoral system is not a single nationwide election. Each state holds an election to choose a
slate of electors. Then the chosen electors vote to choose the president. Thus the election is decided by the states,
through their chosen electors, not directly by the popular vote. This is provided for in Article II Section 1 of
our Constitution.
In this way, candidates
get credit for winning the electoral votes of individual states just as the Pirates
got credit for winning individual games. Deciding the presidential election by the
popular vote rather than by the electoral votes would be equivalent to deciding
the World Series on total runs rather than on games won. In effect one extremely long game---not a
Series at all.
It would be theoretically
possible, of course, to abandon the current, Constitutionally mandated, electoral
system in favor of a nationwide popular vote.
This would place overwhelming elective power in the hands of the voters
in just the few most populous states, and effectively disenfranchise the voters
in the remaining states.
The chance of abolishing
the Electoral College system in favor of a popular vote system is extremely
unlikely. This is because it would
require a Constitutional amendment---which in turn would require ratification
by three fourths of the about-to-be-disenfranchised states. No dice.
More likely, the rules
of the World Series will be changed to award the Championship to the team
scoring the most overall runs. Fat
chance.
In the 1960 World Series
the Yankees scored more runs but the Pirates won more games---and thus the Championship. In the 2016 election, Hillary won more
popular votes but The Donald won more electoral votes---and thus the Presidency.
This is probably because
the Founding Dads, all being rich white males and foreseeing the 2016 Hillary
candidacy, modeled our presidential electoral system after the World
Series.
