What would happen if a vote recount somehow found that Hillary Clinton won the presidency? [View all]

[jodymarie aimee]

What would happen if a vote recount somehow found that Hillary Clinton won the presidency?

Then we can have a real conversation about fixing, replacing, and/or eliminating the Electoral College. This is the second time in less than 20 years that a candidate has won the popular vote but did not win because of the Electoral College vote. It is the fifth time out of 45 presidents. That's 1 out of every 9 presidents. That's a high failure rate.

If the US were overseeing an election in a newly democratic nation, we would not accept that the candidate who got the most votes did not become the leader of that nation. Yet we're perfectly fine with accepting it here.

However, there hasn't been a real conversation about it for two main reasons. One, the two times it has happened recently, it has only affected Democratic candidates. Any suggestion that it needs to be fixed is going to be seen as sour grapes on the part of Democrats. Two, the last time it happened prior to 2000 was in the late 1800s, which suggests to some that it is a minor anomaly.

But it's not. This is a real problem. And I don't know the solution. I like the National Popular Vote (NPV) idea. Please google it if you don't know what it is. In short, it's an interstate compact whereby individual states agree to cast their Electoral College votes for whoever gets the most votes nationally, but it only goes into effect if the combined total of signatory states’ electoral votes meets or exceeds 270. Currently, ten or eleven states have signed on to it, and their votes total about half of what is needed. I think it's a great idea, myself.

But I'm not married to the idea. If someone came up with something they believe is a better voting scheme that better represents the will of the people let's hear that idea.

The current system doesn't work very well, though. Something needs to be done, and I think a reversal of the election based on a recount would be an excellent catalyst for the conversation