Relitigating the 2016 Election: Something Even Better Than The Electoral College, Part Two

Note: This story originally appeared on my blog on December 7, 2016.

2nd Note: “Relitigating the 2016 Election” is a series of the contemporaneous blog posts that I wrote in the lead up to (and the immediate aftermath of) the 2016 election. As these posts reflect my views at that time, they have not been updated.

In a previous story, I wrote that the day after the election, a clinical social worker/college professor named Daniel Brezenoff launched a Change.org petition calling for the Electoral College to choose popular vote winner, Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. The petition has garnered more than 4.9 million signatures since it was posted.

Now that the December 19th meeting of the Electoral College is drawing near, there is increased talk on social media platforms of eliminating the Electoral College altogether.

However, for every Facebook or Twitter denizen who passionately calls for the elimination of the Electoral College, there is another (usually a self-professed Trump supporter) who claims that the Electoral College is completely fair and that anyone upset about the results should simply “get over it.” Or, an anti-Trumper will suggest that the United States adopt direct election by popular vote only to have someone else authoritatively state that popular voting would unfairly advantage highly populated states like California, Texas, and New York.