Episode 16 - Let's Fix How We Vote

Locally Grown with Jim Fini

As is the case with several topics in my book, voting is proving to be an issue that is front and center in our politics right now. Our country is divided, and elections are close. The difference between winning and losing a Presidential election often comes down to a few thousand votes in a relatively few counties. Of the more than 120 million votes cast in the 2016 election, 107,000 votes in three states effectively decided the election. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania account for 46 electoral votes. Trump won PA by 68,236 votes, WI by 27,256 votes, and MI by 11,837 votes. Those 107,000 people represented 0.09 percent of all votes cast in the election. This was only the fourth time a President was elected without winning the popular vote. Both the electoral college and the US Senate were created by the founders precisely to prevent the tyranny of a few densely populate states from dominating the government. Donald Trump won about 80% of the land mass in the United States despite losing the popular vote. The 2020 electoral map is likely to look pretty similar to 2016 regardless of who takes the White House. This doesn’t bode well for America’s future.