Actor Robert Redford wrote in a letter to the Washington Post:
“Our most powerful tool is still the electoral process. We must not be distracted from the opportunity we have in 2020 to reject hatred and division and choose civility and progress. Let’s not talk about impeachment or put all our hopes on the special counsel: The former is mired in Washington politics, and the latter will be once the report is released. Let’s stay focused on taking back our country with the power of our votes.”
Unfortunately, the electoral process, which Redford hopes will be the avenue for our country to “choose civility and progress” is not working. In the last presidential election, the losing candidate got over three million votes more than the winning candidate. The “power of our votes,” is diluted by a system that treats a small, random percentage of voters in swing states as more important than all other voters.
Until we reform our electoral process, we cannot pin all our hopes onto it. But if states choose to assign their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, then candidates will be forced to return to civility, good works, and the issues that Americans care about.