Letters to the editor for Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016

Argument in favor of electoral college

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 2.3 million (1.8 percent) of total votes.

In the five counties that encompass New York City (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond and Queens), Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump. (Clinton only won four of these counties; Trump won Richmond). Therefore these 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. When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election. Large, densely populated Democrat cities (New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.) don’t and shouldn’t speak for the rest of the country.

If you want California and New York to decide the fate of our country forever, ban the electoral college.

Bill Miller

Carson City