The preamble of U.S. Constitution begins beautifully: “We the People of the United States … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

We the people. It should be so simple. The term “democracy” literally means “the rule of the people.” One person, one vote. The right to vote is a sacred right, and an essential element of democracy. Indeed, many have given their lives to defend the right to vote, and just as importantly, to defend the right to have one’s individual vote count.

We have this right on a local, state and federal level, except when it comes to the election of the president of the United States of America. The popular vote aside, the Constitution plainly states that it is the Electoral College vote, not the popular vote, which determines and elects our president.

The Electoral College, which is essentially a fourth branch of our government, comes into existence once every four years with one purpose only — to elect the president of the United States. Contrary to what many people believe, the vote of the people does not elect the president; the electors of the Electoral College, assigned state by state, elects or reelects the president.

Following the election, the Electoral College does not convene again until the next election. To my knowledge, no other democratic nation has such an undemocratic and arcane system.

Paradoxically and highly ironic, the Electoral College deeply embedded within the Constitution is undemocratic (and therefore unconstitutional) and should be deleted! The Electoral College should be abolished because it abrogates the voting rights of every voter. Of course, this is pie-in-the-sky thinking, for both parties, Democratic and Republican, would oppose this because it is easy to manipulate.

An amendment to the Constitution requires three-fourths of states to ratify an amendment. The Equal Rights Amendment, proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul, a leader in the fight for women’s rights, and then again in 1972, has never been ratified after more than a century in limbo. Do not hold your breath on amending the Constitution over the Electoral College!

Significant changes to our Constitution have been made, but these changes literally took centuries. The Declaration of Independence declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” However, “men” referred only to white males, excluding women, Native Americans, and all Black people. It would take more than a century, the suffrage movement, and a brutal Civil War, along with the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of Amendments 13, 14 and 15, to make official that all people are equal and worthy of full representation, re-asserted in 1965 by the Voting Rights Act.

An amendment to delete the Electoral College would bring about significant and meaningful changes. Campaign financing could not be targeted only to the voters of the swing states, thereby decreasing the influence of big money upon our elections. It would mean that each individual’s vote would count equally with every other individual’s vote, irrespective of the state in which one resides. With the Electoral College as it now stands, the voting results of only five to seven so-called “swing” states will determine who our next president will be. Without the Electoral College, the debacle of Jan. 6, 2021 could never happen again.

The election of November 2024 looms; a radical disparity between the popular vote and the tally of the Electoral College will push us to the abyss of a constitutional crisis of its own making. When will we say, enough is enough?

The genius of our Constitution lies in the balance of powers, but the real balance of power lies in the power of the people to keep government in balance. That power is the power of the ballot, the right to vote and to have all votes counted!

As Abraham Lincoln so beautifully and prophetically said in 1863, which is as relevant as ever now in 2024:

“It is rather for us, the living … that we highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; … that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. (Emphasis mine.)

The Rev. Lloyd Parrill lives in Northfield.