QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I really do not understand this electoral college in the United States. Why does the popular vote not count? Then I heard that more electors abandoned Hillary rather than Trump.

Thank You from European Disneyland

JH

ANSWER: It is very simple. The EU has member states and each is really its own sovereign. The United States means what it says; it too is a union of independent sovereign states. The EU is an attempt to federalize Europe on this very model.

If we look at the popular vote and subtract California where Hillary reportedly had 3.5 million more moves than Trump, then the fact that she won the popular vote by 2 million means that Trump actually won the popular vote in the balance of the country. Now, what if all the European member states voted to leave the EU but one state did not and it had the largest population? Would it be fair for that one state to overrule all others?

The constitutional structure is a UNION. The only possible way to preserve that union and prevent the tyranny, in this case of California where already 44% of people over the age of 5 speak a language other than English, is the electoral college. That way, the majority of states are on equal footing. This election showed that Trump won a landslide and he had about 1.5 million+ more votes that Hillary outside of California. What happens when the majority of people in California no longer speak English? This is part of the breakup of the United States. California will become a Spanish-speaking state, not English, in just a few more decades.

Hillary’s effort to steal the election, and John Podesta trying to sway the electors to abandon Trump, was disgraceful and a desperate move to say the least. It backfired with four Democratic electors in Washington state casting votes for candidates other than Hillary who carried the state. Democratic electors in Maine, Minnesota, and Colorado separately tried to cast votes for different candidates, but saw their ballots barred. Clinton carried all three states there as well. The Clinton effort to steel the election saw a backlash where four electors turned their votes from her while only two Republican electors in Texas chose alternatives to Trump. One, who had said weeks earlier he would switch is vote, chose Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich. The other chose former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul.

The electors should not be allowed to switch votes. That should be made a criminal act. This is not their personal election. They are to be bound by the popular vote in their state.