The constitutional reason why George Bush won the 2000 presidential election was because of the Electoral College. But for the Electoral College, Al Gore would have been President of the United States for the last four years. It is not surprising, therefore, that in 2000 we saw a new resurgence of attacks against the Electoral College. Those attacks have not gone away. Now in a masterful new book entitled The Importance of the Electoral College, Dr. George Grant shows the beauty of the Framer’s design, and annihilates leftist attacks on this bedrock defense to liberty and our republican form of government.

Today Worldnetdaily.com reported that nine members of the House of Representatives are officially calling on the United Nations to send advisors to help supervise the 2004 presidential elections. That Americans would be so quick to surrender their national sovereignty to an international body complicit in the murder of millions of unborn babies, the spread of communism, at odds both with Christianity and America, is a tragic sign of the times.

Frankly, the Left would be less emboldened to advance such anti-American and unconstitutional schemes if the Church were more aware of their national charters and covenants, and were willing to hold our leaders accountable to such. Such accountability requires both a theological and historical understanding of our magnificent and unique republican system of government under God as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

As Dr. Grant points out in his new book, as recently as the last elections, too many American conservatives and Christians were at a loss for how to respond to the numerous political attacks against our constitutional Electoral College by those clamoring for one-man-one vote “democracy.”

Our Framers understood that one-man-one vote majoritarianism was a formula for absolute tyranny. They loathed the idea and established a safe-guard against such tyranny called the Electoral College which has for more than two hundred years struck a wise balance between the rights of the states, the individual, the majority, and the minority in a free nation.

The architecture of the Electoral College established a procedure wherein the Republics Chief Executive would be chosen by the people as citizens of the States in which they reside. Instead of a single ‘national’ election, there is a separate election in each of the States which constitutes the Republic. In this manner, the President is not the creature of Congress, but an independent force, albeit with actual elements of accountability to the Congress as well as to the States. Moreover, through the Electoral College process, the President is also accountable to We, the People as citizens of each particular State. Because of the Electoral College system, if fraud is detected in a single States election it does not de-legitimate or poison the total result.

Similarly, the role of the States in choosing the President assures that those who seek the office of chief magistrate will, to a greater degree than would otherwise be the case, pay heed to the varying interests and concerns of the several States.

It is important to note that Electors are chosen in each State in such manner as that States Legislature may determine. Nowhere in the Constitution is a popular election of the President.

In times of crisis, be they the result of war, natural catastrophe, or acts of terrorism, this fact makes it possible to assure continuity of government even if the democratic procedures to which we are accustomed become impractical. Nowhere in the Constitution is it required that a person chosen to serve as Elector exercise anything but his own independent conscience and reasoning in determining for whom his Electoral vote shall be cast. Although penalties may be applied to unfaithful Electors, an Elector may vote for whomever he chooses. Indeed, if, following a popular election prior to the meeting of the Electors in their State capitols, the popular vote winner should die or become incapacitated, this free choice by the Electors can be an extremely important factor.

In my view, a defining issue of 2004 will be the ability of Christians and constitutionalists to articulately defend the Framer’s design against those who would turn our national elections into a French revolutionary mob. Please stay tuned for more information on this important book.