Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez loves to hate on the
Electoral College. Once again, she has the nation up in arms about
America’s unique presidential election system.
The Electoral College, the New York Democrat said
on Instagram last week, is a “scam” that “effectively weighs white
voters over voters of color.” Then on Friday afternoon, she doubled
down, tweeting that the Electoral College is nothing more than
“affirmative action” for rural voters.
In her view, rural areas are too white – and too powerful in presidential elections.
Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez should take a step back in
time. Civil rights leaders once had a different view, and they came out
in force to argue for the preservation of the Electoral College.
Appearing before Congress in 1979, National Urban
League President Vernon Jordan said, “Take away the Electoral College,
and the importance of that black vote melts away. Blacks, instead of
being crucial to victory in major states, simply become 10 percent of
the total electorate, with reduced impact.”
Indeed, he and other civil rights leaders noted benefits of the Electoral College that tend to be ignored today.
First, the winner-take-all allocation of votes in
the Electoral College prevents third-party extremists from succeeding at
the national level.
In 1968, segregationist Gov. George Wallace of
Alabama struggled to make a good showing, even though he had strong
regional support. Civil rights leaders at the time noticed – and they
even praised his defeat in congressional testimony.
Second, the concentration of black voters in certain large metropolitan areas can be an advantage, at least in some states.
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