Democratic calls to abolish the Electoral College have continued since twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College in 2016, handing the victory to President Trump. Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly called for eliminating the system, which would require a constitutional amendment.

Source: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: We must ‘eliminate the Electoral College’ – Washington Times

The Electoral College has 535 delegates. Those delegates represent every member of Congress from the House to the Senate. The Senate has two senators for each state or 100 and the House of Representatives has 435 member representing the people of the districts in each state with district size being based on population.

Have you ever wondered why the U.S. House of Representatives only has 435 seats to represent 325.7 million people? That is one person to represent 748,735 citizens. At one time the number of representatives was increased during new reapportionment bills that was stopped in 1929 when Congress pass the Permanent Reapportionment Act of 1929. That act locked the number of representatives in the House to 435 seats and from then on representatives were added from one state by taking away from another when the census population showed that it was warranted.

Montana currently has the largest district with their one representative representing 994,416, or the entire state of Montana. The smallest district by population is Rhode Island’s 1st district with a population of 526,283. The average district size is 710,767 people.

I have a suggestion. Let’s set district size at a minimum 100,000 and a maximum at 200,000 and let that determine the number of representatives in the House. That would increase the House size to 3,257 members. Georgia would go from 14 representatives to 103 and California would go from 53 to 393.

This would achieve a number of things. It would reduce the effects of gerrymandering and it would increase the chances of a third party or an independent of getting into office. It would reduce the power of a single representative but increase the representation of individuals.

The biggest effect, however, would be that it would move the electoral college to more closely resemble the popular vote while still giving the small states a voice.

This can be done without amending the constitution.

….and you don’t either.

I know who I want to believe and you know who you want to believe but neither of us really know who to believe. Maybe we shouldn’t believe any of them (there is more than two sides here) or maybe we can believe a little of both of them.