Letters to the Editor: Things would have been different under President Al Gore. Thanks, electoral college

To the editor: The U.S. Supreme Court has changed the course of history. In its 2000 appointment of George W. Bush to the presidency, the court ignored the Constitution and halted Florida’s ballot recount. That year and in 2016, the candidate who got the greatest number of votes would not go on to be president. (“The electoral college is a blot on democracy. The Supreme Court shouldn’t make it worse,” editorial, May 15)

Had Democrat Al Gore been inaugurated in 2001, there would have been no Iraq war and possibly even no Great Recession. We would have had a 20-year head start on climate change and, most likely, Hillary Clinton would be the president of the United States today.

For the court to even consider “faithless electors” is an abdication of the Constitution and the rule of law.

Craig Simmons, Northridge

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To the editor: As your editorial rightly puts it, the “electoral college is a blot on American democracy.” But it’s in our Constitution, a harmful anachronism that we are forced to obey.

The answer isn’t to pile on patches and kluges such as binding electors or multi-state compacts. We need a constitutional amendment instituting a national popular vote for president.

Randall Gellens, San Diego