The men who wrote the U.S. Constitution had difficulty deciding how to choose a president.

The slave states had no intention of risking loss of their right to exploit slave labor as a result of a majority vote. That is the reason that each state has two senators regardless of the population of the state. Each state was required to choose electors who would vote for someone for president. There was no requirement for an election process. Today, the electoral votes are for a Republican or a Democrat or, possibly, a third party candidate.

But when the constitution was written, there were no political parties. The electors could vote for a lot of candidates. The states submitted their electoral votes to the U.S. Congress where the votes were counted. If someone received a majority of the electoral votes, that person was to become the U.S. President. But if no person received a majority of the electoral votes or if there was a tie vote, the process was referred to the House of Representatives. The House would select the president by allowing each state to cast one vote. According to historian Alexander Keyssar, if the 2020 election had been referred to the House of Representatives, states having less than 20 percent of the U.S. population could have chosen the U.S. President.

That illuminates the flaw that has existed since the constitution was adopted. Our electoral college system allowed Donald Trump to become president in 2016 even though he received two million fewer votes than his opponent. Considering the uncertainty that surrounded the 2020 election, it is clear that the flawed electoral system could destabilize our nation.

The problem hasn’t gone unnoticed. Again, according to Alexander Keyssar, writing in his recent book Why do we still have the electoral college?, more than 800 bills have been submitted in the congress that would have amended the constitution to correct this serious flaw. None made it out of the starting gate. A bill to amend the constitution must be approved by two-thirds vote in the House and also by a two-thirds vote in the Senate. If congress approves a bill to amend the constitution, then three-fourths of our 50 states must also grant approval. It has happened. The U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times. Slave economics is no longer an issue, but during the past approximately 60 years much of our population has moved from rural to urban areas. Rural states can still punch above their weight class because of the electoral college system.

Those among us who have lived in both the open country and in dense cities know that life is different in those two environments. But basic human rights, legal protections, and governance should apply uniformly to all. An advocacy organization that promotes civic education, Educating for American Democracy, notes that our federal government spends 1000 times more money on STEM education than on civic education. STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) is certainly important for our technical society, but we also need to know how to make our democracy function properly.

Allowing the urban majority to ignore or diminish people who live in America’s less populated states is unacceptable, but allowing a small percentage of our population to determine policy for all Americans is also unacceptable. We need to update our election procedures before we stumble into chaos.

Since 1789 when the first congress convened, 12,421 people have served in the United States Congress, and 800 bills have been submitted proposing amendments to address the electoral college issue, but our constitutional birth defect remains uncured.

Jack Stevenson is retired. He served two years in Vietnam as an infantry officer, retired from military service and worked three years as a U.S. Civil Service employee. He also worked in Egypt as an employee of the former Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Currently, he reads history, follows issues important to Americans and writes commentary for community newspapers.