✆ “I do not agree with the electoral college vote system. We should have a popular vote, because we got this so-called president, and I say again, so-called president, who was never elected as president, and he didn’t get all the popular votes which Gore got, so we have to be with this man who should have been impeached two years ago, and we still have to have this man who’s killing all these children and people in Iraq and we’ve got to get rid of him.” ✆ “I don’t think the electoral college is right because it was invented 200 years ago and people weren’t educated, but on the other hand, the way the election is right now, it’s not right either because some guy can win 10 states with more votes than a guy that wins 40 states with... so the guy with more states should be president, but then the guy with more votes should be president, so maybe what they need to do in a case like that where one guy has more popular votes and one guy has more states that voted for him, is share power, two years for one guy, two years for the other guy. But something has got to be done because we cannot go through what we did last time in Florida.” ✆ “I don’t think anyone in California still approves of the electoral college. It’s a completely arbitrary and undemocratic way of nullifying the popular vote.” ✆ “Our founding fathers were brilliant. They established many checks and balances in our government’s structure to protect our freedom and individual rights. The electoral college vote system is one of them. It prevents majority rule, also known as mob rule, which historically, has always led to anarchy and dictatorship. Once allowed in our elections, it’s an easy slide down the slippery slope and to our congress where our individual rights can be erased by a single vote. A good example is the French Revolution. Check it out.” ✆ “I believe the electoral college is necessary to ensure that each states’ population is represented and in deciding who will become president, not just the most popular cities and states, period. The founding fathers set up the college in our constitution to protect all voters.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 30, 2004. Read the original PDF.