Editor,

In a recent letter to the editor defending the electoral college, Brad J. Taylor wrote that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by approximately 1.5 million votes and received more votes than Donald Trump in only 57 U.S. counties during the 2016 election.

Both of these statements are flat out wrong.

According to an Associated Press article from December 2016, Clinton won 487 counties nationwide and won the popular vote by approximately 2.87 million votes.

Based on my research at Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit website that helps verify the accuracy of political claims, it seems as if the author of last week’s letter is repeating misinformation from a Facebook post that was widely shared after the 2016 election.

It is very likely Mr. Taylor did not even know the information he was sharing was inaccurate.

I appreciate that the Whidbey News-Times provides a forum for civil debate. However, I hope that you will fact check letters to the editor so that readers are presented with factual information. Otherwise, your paper is simply helping to spread the misinformation which has become such a negative part of our society.

I think it is important that we are able to civilly debate politics and our political systems. I appreciate that Mr. Taylor was trying to do that.

But let us make sure we are debating with a shared understanding of important facts, and our conversations will hopefully be much more productive as a result.

Matthew Black

Oak Harbor