In Light of Last Prez Election, Electoral College Debated
By Anna Young
With so many people still confused by the results of the presidential election, the Putnam County League of Women Voters (LWV) held an informational forum regarding the Electoral College last Thursday night at the Mahopac Library.
Many people throughout the county continue seeking information about the Electoral College and how President Donald Trump was able to win the election despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, President of LWV, Eileen Reilly said. She felt it was necessary to try and provide people with answers.
“The library approached us to do this because they too had a lot of request from people who come to the library to explain why the Electoral College exists,” Reilly said at the April 20 forum. “This year was the kind of election where it was obvious where the popular vote was so high, yet the Electoral College elected the president, which made people wonder why they even go to vote.”
Reilly added how until this election, she never gave the inner workings of the Electoral College a second thought.
“I had questions, why did this happen?” she added. “I don’t understand the mechanics of the Electoral College, so that was my need to have this and learn more about it.”
Barbara Bartoletti, Legislative Director of LWV NYS and Anthony Scannapieco, Jr., Republican Election Commissioner for the Putnam County Board of Elections, served as political experts during the panel discussion.
Dr. Jeanne Zaino, leading expert on electoral politics, was expected to join the panel but did not show due to an emergency.
While Bartoletti spoke on the LWV’s desire to abolish the Electoral College and modernize the system to one-person one vote, Scannapieco believes removing the Electoral College would be detrimental to the system because the larger states would control each election.
“If we didn’t have this last election, we wouldn’t all be sitting here talking about this,” Scannapeico said. “The founding fathers did this because the small states get left out, they were very concerned that the larger states would override these small states and these small states would never go to vote for anybody.”
Bartoletti stressed if The National Popular Vote bill passed, a bill guaranteeing the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states, it would serve as a better use for the country.
This bill has already been enacted into law in 10 states, including New York.
Despite mixed opinions from the crowd, Reilly is still unsure if the Electoral College is a necessity moving forward.
“People are asking, ‘Do we need the Electoral College still’ and after tonight, I still have questions,” Reilly said. “We should do this again.”
