Editor,

Steve Erickson’s article published in the Dec. 3 Whidbey News-Times argues for the elimination of the Electoral College. Part of his rationale is that a democratic election should be based on the premise of each vote being worth the same. He quotes that the Electoral College makes each Washington voter equal to three-eighths of a Wyoming voter. He also traces the Electoral College being established to protect the South’s slave-based economy.

First of all, we are a republic, not a democracy. Each vote in each state carried the same weight.

The Electoral College was also established to protect small states from being outvoted by states with large populations. Two solutions were implemented to protect the small states. One was the Electoral College. Without the Electoral College, about eight states — the coastal, upper mid-west, Texas among them — have enough population to out vote the rest of the country.

The Senate was the other. Each state has two senators, regardless of population.

If the Electoral College were discarded due to voter inequality, shouldn’t the Senate be eliminated for the same reason?

Tom Hanify

Clinton