LETTERS: ELECTORAL COLLEGE PLAYS INVALUABLE ROLE IN ELECTIONS

To the editor:

I about fell out of my breakfast chair when I read Carol Baylor's letter to the editor. It is a prime example of why we need improvements in our public schools. The Electoral College was created so that the people of each state would have a voice in the election. Let us not forget that this country is a representative republic, not a democracy. We do not hold national elections. All of our elections are state elections. If it were a true democracy, or rule by the mob, then the populations of the West Coast and East Coast would be able to control the elections. If we had used the popular vote in 1960, Richard Nixon would have won the election instead of John F. Kennedy.

One final point: The popular vote has not been won by Al Gore yet. There are millions of absentee votes that still need to be counted across the country. With the trend of absentee ballots going to George W. Bush, it is still possible that Bush could win the popular vote. Gore's current lead in the popular vote is so razor thin we probably will need to have a national ballot recount like we did in Florida. This is why the Electoral College is so necessary. It is to prevent heavily populated areas of the country from dominating the election process and to prevent presidential candidates from focusing their attention on New York and California.

I urge everyone to please open up your old high school civics book and reread the section about the Electoral College and our constitutional form of government.

JIM KREWSON

Shawneetown, Mo.