It’s time to seriously consider the merits of the electoral college. It hearkens to the days before modern communication and education. The electors selected by each congressional district plus two (just like the a states’ members of congress) would ensure no foreign influence on the election. The electors travel to Washington DC and cast their votes. The are not required to vote in accordance with the district they represent. Most states have adopted rules to prevent this from happening. In the case of a tie the House of Representatives holds a vote and elects the president. The Senate elects a new vice president.
The Electoral College used confirmed electors sent from each state. In this way it was believed the individuals showing up in DC would be able to cast their votes and no outside force would be able to interfere with the results. What if agents of a foreign power or political organization (or cult) were able to influence individual electors? It would be possible to use leverage or intimidation to get individual electors to vote in accordance with someone’s wishes.
There was also the belief that common people, often uneducated and illiterate, shouldn’t necessarily be allowed to pick their own president. The ability for more educated people to bypass the purely democratic system in the instance of win through demagoguery. Today the average education level is higher than ever. Granted the US does not have the best educational system (a problem that needs to be addressed) but it is not as it was in 1800.
The problem today is that the candidate (Donald Trump) who lost an election in 2016 by 3 million votes became the president. Congress and the press spent the next four years attempting to explain how that happened by blaming social platforms and the Russians, who may have tried, but did not succeed in swaying the popular vote. The result came down to three districts and less than 80,000 votes (Washington Post). It is easy to see how someone who was good at math could have hacked the right places, with just enough votes, to put Trump into office. The same could be said of the elections in 2000 and 2004 when George Bush Jr the Neo Con won.
The Trump puppet was then used in an attempt to drive Republican voters back to the socialist Neo Con faction. It didn’t really work as planned. The Big T actually did some things right. At the end of his term he was dictated to cry voter fraud. Rabble rousing got some people to put on a big show in DC and the National Guard failed to show up. Anyone alleging vote fraud in the future will receive a quick shout down. I bet Karl Marx and Freiderich Engels are happy as hell.
Speaking of that place, to hell with the electoral college system. It is in dire need of reform or outright abandonment. It is obviously too easy to hack and diminishes people’s right to forge their own destiny. If we are to be worried about the education level of average voters then bring their level of education up. If we are concerned about the average voters level of understanding of government then make those processes more transparent.