LETTER: Bill pending at Nevada Legislature regarding the Electoral College a bad idea

So the Nevada Legislature is considering Assembly Bill 274, which would forfeit Nevada’s Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The argument for the proposal, one supporter said, is that it would make “more sense to have a system where voters in every state, during every election, are relevant.”

The implication is that the Founding Fathers must have been morons to enshrine the Electoral College in the Constitution. But they were anything but morons.

The Electoral College was the solution to the conflict between popular sovereignty and each state’s demand for greater representation. Another way to phrase that is the Electoral College is a barrier to protect the rights of the minority from majority rule. This is why our Founding Fathers gave us a republic, instead of a democracy.

But enough of history. The practical effect of making each state cast their Electoral College votes for the winner of the national popular vote is to eliminate the Electoral College. Individual states would have no protection from the tyranny of the majority, as our founders intended.

In the past election, Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by almost 3 million votes. She won California by more than 4 million votes. California has almost 4 million people receiving welfare benefits of some kind. That’s not a coincidence. People on welfare are not stupid. They vote for the candidates who promise them the most, invariably the Democrats.

So logically, all we need to do as a country is poll people on welfare in California. Whoever they support will be the winner of every presidential election. Is that where Nevada wants? I don’t know. Ask the legislators proposing AB 274.