Today at the state Capitol in Olympia — and at state capitols throughout the country — members of the Electoral College will meet to elect the next president of the United States.
It is a time-honored tradition, and yet one that typically garners little attention. That is not the case this year, with the Electoral College, which was defined in the United States Constitution, suddenly becoming the subject of much speculation and possible controversy. And while the votes cast today by 538 electors will be more noteworthy than is typical, we are hopeful that they will help ease the peaceful transfer of power that is a hallmark of the American system of government.
This would be done through the election of Donald J. Trump as the country’s 45th president — as dictated by the results of the national election on Nov. 8.
As spelled out by the Founding Fathers, the Electoral College was designed as a compromise between having the president selected by Congress and by a direct popular vote of qualified citizens. The result is that if a candidate wins the popular vote in a given state, he or she collects all of that state’s electoral votes — a number equal to that state’s number of congressional representatives.
The process typically is not noteworthy, but this year there have been numerous efforts to convince voters to go against the wishes of their state’s vote and deny Trump the presidency. One argument is that Trump is unfit for the job, and advocates of this view often quote Alexander Hamilton, who wrote: “Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.”
Critics have argued that Trump has few talents beyond low intrigue and that Hamilton wrote Federalist paper No. 68 with somebody such as Trump in mind. We would argue that Trump’s shortcomings were well known, and that voters still elected him; the Electoral College should heed those wishes.
Others have noted that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote during the election. But, again, under the rules that have served this country for more than 225 years, the popular vote is not how we select a president.
And, finally, there is concern over Russian influence upon the election through the hacking of emails and the revelation of their contents in an attempt to sway the election in Trump’s favor. Again, this argument falls short. Regardless of how the emails were revealed, they were factual documents that merely provided the public with information it otherwise would not have had. If voters were influenced by factual information, then so be it.
In short, voters weighed the evidence and elected Trump to be president.
Given those facts, it is time for the nation to move forward. The Columbian had endorsed Clinton for president; she didn’t win. Often, the most important thing is not whether you receive the result that you desire, but how you react to the actual results. Throwing the election into chaos and sending it to the House of Representatives would only increase the enmity that has hampered this nation for all too long.
Members of the Electoral College should gather today and reflect the will of the voters.
