In his latest idea to fundamentally change America, failed presidential candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stated, "We need to rethink the Electoral College."
“We may want to take a look at the whole Electoral College, which is seating a man for president who didn’t get the most votes. This is something we need a serious discussion on,” he said in response to Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote but not the Electoral College.
Clinton is the second presidential candidate from the Democratic Party to win the popular vote but lose the presidency in the last five national elections.
Sanders continued, “This campaign revolved around 15 states of the country, right? Battleground states. My state of Vermont is a strong Democratic state; no one paid attention. Wyoming is a Republican state; nobody paid attention to Wyoming. Is that a good way? I think we want to rethink that.”
These are interesting thoughts from Sanders, as one of the strongest arguments for the Electoral College is that it forces presidential candidates to pay attention to less populated states that may otherwise be neglected if the system was purely based on a popular vote.
The U.S. government website says of the Electoral College, “The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.”
Naturally after a Trump victory, Sanders isn’t the only one second-guessing the system. There was an online petition formed calling for the Electoral College to cast their votes for Clinton instead of Trump, basically asking to disregard the results of the election.
“On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots,” the petition states. “If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay!”
One of the lines reads, “We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton.”
Reports by Greg Phillips of VoteFraud.org surfaced Sunday claiming that 3 million illegal immigrants voted in this 2016 presidential election, meaning the popular vote might have actually turned out differently. Voiding their illegitimate votes would likely swing the popular vote to Trump's favor, as one of his core messages on the campaign trail was cracking down on illegal immigration.
Trump also condemned the Electoral College in 2012, calling it a “disaster for democracy,” after President Obama won re-election.
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