sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Donald Trump was elected by our E*******l College process, even if not by popular v**e. Once the whole country goes to electronic v****g we can work on changing the way v**es count. It was a brilliant idea when it was created, though - imagine if in the past an e******n was contested - the entire nation would have to have a recount and the results could be in turmoil for months.

But Trump was elected. And he will appoint associates such as Gingrich who are even more despicable than he. However - he has the right to act as president, and even though he and others spent years trying to delegitimize the Obama presidency, the rest of us need to behave like mature adults.

Did those protesting Trump's e******n actually campaign for Hillary? I sort of doubt it. By protesting in general against Trump they are protesting our democracy. That is stupid. They need to be watchful, and if Trump does something they do not like, THEN they should call him out on it. And even though the House and Senate are under the control of Republicans, many of them are rational people and will protect us from irrational ideas.

I only hope that the republicans remember that even though they say that "government regulations" are a bad thing, the overwhelming majority of Americans love and demand clean air, clean water, and prefer not to be ripped off by banks. And if you are going to act against "government regulations", please stop being hypocrites - let people love and marry who they want, let people worship the God they want (or not), and let people access a highly useful medicinal herb without government interference.

Opus Loc: South East Michigan

Big Bill Loc: Phoenix, AZ

"imagine if in the past an e******n was contested - the entire nation would have to have a recount and the results could be in turmoil for months."

Does the term "h*****g chad" ring a bell?

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Not sure what the point is. But that is another argument for an all-electronic scanning v**e tabulation system. As opposed to an all-electronic or online system - there needs to be back-up documentation to ascertain that v**es were counted correctly by the equipment.

Big Bill Loc: Phoenix, AZ

if you don't know what a h*****g chad is, I understand your confusion. Look it up.
The point is this: there was a contested e******n. Unfortunately, the younger people don't know that, even though it was fairly recent.
And no, I don't like the all-electronic scanning; the machines have been demonstrated to be both fallible, and easily hacked. Until those problems are fixed, I will never trust them.

soba1 Loc: Somewhere In So Ca

Well put

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

I do know what a h*****g chad was. I just did not see the relationship to that and the e*******l college. The electronic machines that can allow for rapid counting - AND recounting - should that be necessary, are simply the machines that scan hand-written b****ts. My point was that THOSE machines have a paper back-up so that it can easily be determined whether or not they have been hacked. But a simple scanning and counting machine would not even have to be wired into a network and could have minimal "logic" to be hacked. I last v**ed where all b****ts were hand-counted. It still happens. It takes a lot of time. And to do away with the e*******l college would mean that EVERY v**e in the country would need to be recounted should there be a challenge. THAT is what the founding fathers avoided by creating the E*******l College.

Of course, the other reform needed - obvious from this e******n - is to allow multiple candidates and multiple parties to participate equally in the process, and to get big cash out of the process. THEN - as done in other countries - if no one gets more than 50%, the top two have a run-off e******n.

But we sold out democracy when the Supreme Court ruled on Citizen's United, saying that "money is speech" and "corporations are people too". This creates $100,000,000 senate e******ns. We had an e******n in central Florida where the DCCC brought in a totally unknown candidate apparently hand-picked by Nancy Pelosi to run against a 28-year member of congress. Even though I am a democrat and favor term limits, John Mica had served his constituents very well - no one would deny that. This unknown had a web page with almost no information. She works as "an executive" at a "small, boutique investment management firm" which no one has ever heard of and which does not even have a web presence. The DCCC spent $7.5 million on TV ads, and she won. I think that is pathetic. It is certainly NOT democracy at work.