One of the many issues at stake in tomorrow's election is the fate of the electoral college. Democrats want to do away with it and Republicans want to keep it, but many voters, unfortunately, have no idea what the electoral college is and why it matters.
To help us understand this institution here's a short five minute video that explains how the electoral college works and why it's important. The video was originally made about ten years ago so some of the references to political figures may seem a little anachronistic, but that doesn't detract from its message.
It's disturbing that there's so much support on the left for abolishing the electoral college. One gets the feeling that those who wish its demise do so because it's an impediment to their own electoral success. If they can't win playing by the traditional rules then they want to change the rules.
That same sentiment is also at the root, it seems, of the desire among many Democratic leaders to pack the Supreme Court with additional justices and to grant statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
If a Democratic president was able to appoint two or four more progressive justices progressives would have a permanent majority on the Court which would allow them to circumvent Republican legislatures until a Republican president and Senate were eventually elected and added another two or four conservative justices of their own. This could theoretically continue until the Supreme Court had more members than the Congress.
If both D.C. and Puerto Rico became states the overwhelming likelihood is that they would elect Democratic senators which would give Democrats an almost invincible majority in the Senate for at least a generation.
So, there's quite a lot at stake in tomorrow's election.
