Your Halloween Horror: the Electoral College

It’s a weird costume, but worth the effort.

Photo by Max on Unsplash

There are at present a lot of opinion pieces and one very scary Atlantic piece swarming about to terrify the hell out of voters this election. Most of them have to do with the Electoral College. Now, I get it. Horror is most effective when you’re dealing with something that is a.) unknown and b.) out of your control. So it does seem for a lot of people like a fun little way to terrify the bejeebus out of voters. But my own personal fear is that people will believe in the inevitability of this cosmic eldritch horror known as “Electhorhal Chtolletght,” not go to the polls and thereby allow this ancient dead one to rise again.

I’ve explained this in detail and in humour here, and here. So if you want a super in depth but also generalized explanation of it go there. I’m going to tell you for this particular Halloween why you shouldn’t be afraid of it. Well, you should. But not as much as certain Atlantic pieces might imply, Barton.

Barton Gellman by Edvard Munch (Actually “The Scream,” but my title is funnier)

So yeah, the Electoral College is not great. My personal feeling on it is that it outgrew its usefulness when political parties formed. And it’s always…