It is time for Maine to join the 16 states that have signed on to an agreement to choose presidential electors from the party that wins the national popular vote. If enough states sign on and make the collective total of electors 270 or more, then the president will be elected by popular vote.

Until now, I have favored the Electoral College system, because close election disputes can be isolated to a small number of states. Resolve those isolated state issues and resolve the election relatively quickly. A close election decided by a popular vote has no isolated problem area, because every vote matters in every state, so choosing a winner is more complicated.

Recent presidential elections have been decided by between 500 votes and 100,000 votes in one to three states. These elections were decided by less than one-10th of 1 percent of the total vote. On any other day, the losing candidate might have won. In the four elections, two presidents-elect won the popular vote and two presidents-elect did not. Maybe chance played a role. The Electoral College approach can be reduced to a flip of the coin even if the popular vote is decisive.

A presidential election by popular vote would emphasize the most populous states, like California, Texas, Florida and New York, and make swing states irrelevant. The power and influence of these four states would grow at the expense of the power and influence of smaller states, but the president-elect would represent the will of the people. Every vote would count.

Peter Konieczko
Scarborough

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