Time to rethink Electoral College: Sanders
US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders says the Electoral College needs a review after electing “a man for president who didn’t get the most votes.”
In an interview with the USA Today on Sunday, the Vermont senator said Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton necessitated a “serious discussion” on the concept of electoral votes.
“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,” said Sanders. “This is something we need a serious discussion on.”
“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?” he asked, adding, “I think we want to rethink that.”
Despite losing the popular vote, Trump was able to clench a historic victory by winning 290 electoral votes. The former secretary of state took 228 votes after losing key states.
The remainder of the 538 votes had not yet been assigned to any candidate as of Monday, according to AP.
The Electoral College was established after “the nation’s founders saw it as a compromise between electing the President by a popular vote among citizens and electing the President in Congress,” according to the US government’s website.
Almost all of the states, except for Maine and Nebraska, use the “winner-take-all” basis, which means the candidate with the most votes gets all of electors.
Sanders’ comment came as thousands of protesters had been holding rallies in various parts of the US, urging Trump to resign over his racist and divisive campaign pledges.
Some of the protesters have demanded the Electoral College to vote for Clinton as it convenes to cast the final vote in December.
Sanders said it was the people’s right to show and “angry” and “upset” they were over Trump’s election.
“They want to express their point of view that they are very frightened, in very, very strong disagreement with Mr. Trump, who has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign,” said the senator, who led an unsuccessful nomination bid against Clinton in the primaries.
“I think that people are saying, ‘Mr. Trump, we have come too far in this country fighting discrimination and bigotry. We’re not going back. And if you’re going to continue that effort, you’re going to have to take us on,’” Sanders further explained.
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