GOOD INTENTIONS AREN'T ALWAYS GOOD REASON TO FIX THINGS

I think we better take a deep breath before trying to fashion legislative panaceas for perceived problems with our electoral system. The uncertainty in the Florida election result is not due to a flawed system, but fallen humanity.

As soon as the nation's preliminary presidential election returns suggested that the popular vote winner might lose the Electoral College vote and thus the presidency, people such as Hillary Clinton began clamoring for the abolition of the Electoral College. After a week of witnessing the horrifyingly subjective behavior of certain county election officers , two presumably well-meaning congressmen have offered a magical solution.

Republican Rep. Jim Leach and Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio introduced legislation to form a bipartisan 12-member commission to recommend how best to ensure the integrity of future federal elections. Among the issues the panel would be assigned to study would be voter registration, mail-in balloting, voting technology, ballot design, weekend voting, campaign finance reform and the rationale for the Electoral College.

In their zeal to resolve every conceivable problem through creating more laws, Washington politicians sometimes ignore the consequences of their proposals. In their rush to fix imperfections in the election system they disregard larger principles that may be at stake.

In short, they are trampling on the very heart of our constitutional framework. The U. S. Constitution established a system of federalism, whereby governmental power is shared between the federal and state governments. While our Constitution makes the federal government supreme over the states, it also ensures the integrity and legitimacy of the states by granting them specific rights and reserving others.

The Electoral College is a constitutionally created institution flowing from the Framers' intention to preserve states' rights. In their wisdom they conferred upon the several states the critically important power to elect the president.

Proposals before Congress to abolish the Electoral College and to establish an election reform commission would erode the power of the states. It is one thing to propose a diminution of states' rights through a constitutional amendment. It is another thing for the federal government, through legislation, to usurp the prerogative of the states in establishing their own voting procedures.

The problem in Florida is not with the system. It's with certain people who are engaged in a systematic effort to hijack the presidential election. The problem is not with the laws, but the people.

It is time that we quit passing new laws and started obeying the laws already on the books. We are never going to achieve utopia, but we'd come a lot closer to it if we would concentrate on improving our behavior rather than our laws.

I wish that politicians at all levels would consider the system-damaging consequences of their sometimes well-meaning proposals.

I pray that the Gore forces and their disciples will think long and hard before they continue to undermine our constitutional, legal and electoral systems.

~David Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau is a nationally syndicated columnist.