A proposal for Arkansas' Electoral College votes
I want to thank Frank Lockwood for his excellent article Sunday, "Electors urged to vote for Democrat." It was a good lesson for those of us who wonder how it is that the president-elect isn't automatically the same person as the candidate who gets the greater number of votes nationally.
Lockwood's article quotes Arkansas' 6 Electoral College voters (all GOP members) saying they are being asked to go "rogue." Since the vote was two-thirds for the GOP candidate and one-third for the Democrat candidate, I had (naively) expected four Republicans and two Democrat electors.
Ballotpedia.org points out that Arkansas is one of 20 U.S. states with no penalty for electors who cast a vote for the candidate not from their party.
That being the case, I propose the following in an interest of casting Arkansas' six votes proportionately. The six GOP Electoral College voters can draw straws and the two getting the short straws will cast their vote for the Democrat.
What will this accomplish? Not much if Arkansas is the only state in the Union ethical enough to want every single one of its citizens' votes counted for the election of president. But, if every state used this method, then the candidate with the greater number of votes would win, which would make sense when that candidate presently has 1.7 million voter more than the GOP candidate.
I'm not naive enough to think this will happen, but it would certainly make me proud of Arkansas if it showed the respect due its voters by representing their vote when they cast those six votes -- and by drawing straws, none of them is disloyal to the 682,798 GOP votes. They are simply making our state's Electoral College vote represent each and every vote cast on Nov. 8, and I hope they will as I don't want to be disenfranchised!
Please, it is the highest and best use of their votes.
Carole Harter
Fayetteville
Brummett whips up a story from the past
John Brummett is at it again, showing his "we are better than you because we're educated," Democratic attitude.
The deplorables won the election because of the revenge of the uneducated white male. When I was young I had a very good, highly educated friend who had graduated from med school and was an M.D. He told me not to buy that new whipped butter because it was a ripoff. I told him I didn't understand because one pound of whipped butter costs the same as regular butter, and he replied "There is air in the whipped butter."
No college in the world teaches common sense. Common sense is what won this election, and I would suggest to John, try the whipped butter; it really is a good value.
David Mencl
Rogers
Commentary on 11/27/2016