The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. States’ entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives, plus two for senators (archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html)

Recently, the newly convened Democratic controlled House of Representatives introduced a bill to eliminate the electoral college. Below is an excellent explanation on why this is a very bad idea.

The following list of statistics has been making the rounds on the Internet. This does not mean “factual.” Flip the winners and losers, example remains pertinent.

In their infinite wisdom, the United States’ Founders created the Electoral College to ensure the STATES were fairly represented. Begin by thinking, “counties.”

There are 3,141 counties in the United States.

Trump won 3,084 of them.

Clinton won 57.

There are 62 counties in New York State.

Trump won 46 of them.

Clinton won 16.

Clinton won the popular vote by approximately 1.5 million votes.

In the five counties that encompass NYC (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond and Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump.

Therefore five counties alone more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country.

These five counties comprise 319 square miles.

The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles.

Our country encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory. It would be ludicrous to suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election.

Large, densely populated cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc.) DO NOT and SHOULD NOT speak for the rest of our country!

The Electoral College assures each state an equal voice in election of our president.

KAREN PETTALIA,

Presque Isle