People are even signing petitions begging the electors to vote according to the popular vote instead of the direction that their own state went.
Unfortunately, most anti-Electoral College activists don't have any idea what they're really talking about - much less what they're doing.
Take a look at the map below. See those little blue spots throughout the country? About 50% of the U.S. population, give or take a few percentage points, lives in those little blue spots. The people living in those tiny little blue spots - that are few and far between - could decide the whole direction of the country if we were to eliminate the Electoral College. How is that better representation at all?
You see, the Electoral College (which you can read about in the United States Constitution, Article II section 1) was set up to avoid something like this. If those small little areas could decide the whole direction of the country, the people who don't live in those blue spots would be completely ignored. Their interests wouldn't matter. Their votes wouldn't matter.
Those people - those human beings - wouldn't matter anymore.
In fact, some states are still counting votes. Absentee votes aren't used to call a state for a candidate - unless the state is too close on Election Night. Provisional votes are the same. Officially, the vote count doesn't have to be in and official until the end of the month. That leaves plenty of time for every single vote in every single state to be counted.
And, who knows? The popular vote might actually swing in the President-Elect's favor.
But, even if it doesn't, these petitions that are circulating asking the electors to ignore what their state has decided are incredibly dangerous. In the history of the Electoral College system, there has only ever been a handful of "faithless electors" - a person who decides to vote according to their own conscience as opposed to the pledge they gave their state.
Because that's how it works.
These electors are chosen because the people can trust them to vote how the state voted. If the state, like Virginia, went to Hillary Clinton, all thirteen electors have pledged to cast their vote for Hillary Clinton. If the state, like Ohio, went to Donald Trump, all eighteen electors have pledged to cast their vote for Donald Trump.
What the electors of each state do has nothing to do with any other state and everything to do with the people of their state. I, personally, would be very angry if the people that I trusted to represent my vote chose to do what some other person in some other state was doing. I don't care how many people voted that way. It's not how it works.
The Electoral College was constructed to ensure the viability of every vote. It protects the little guy. It gives equal representation to the voters who feel forgotten.
Popular vote sounds like a good idea. It gives the illusion of putting every person on equal footing. It makes people feel like their voice has been heard.
But, look at that map one more time. Those little blue spots could silence a large portion of the United States. (And I want to be clear that this isn't about Republican versus Democrat - this isn't about party lines and divisions. It would be just as important if the little spots were red and the rest of the country were blue.)
If America went to popular vote instead of the Electoral College system, the people outside those little blue spots would have no purpose in voting - because even if all of them voted the opposite of those little blue spots, they would still lose.
Eliminating the Electoral College only works as a tool to silence. Popular vote drowns out the voice of small groups who just might have a different opinion.
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