By STEVE ERICKSON

Remember “All men are created equal?” The Electoral College makes a Washington voter worth about three-eighths of a Wyoming voter. I don’t think a Wyoming voter — or anybody else from a sparsely populated state — is worth any more or less than any other voter, regardless of where they live.

The Electoral College is the peculiar institution by which we choose our presidents. Five times in U.S. history, and twice in the last 16 years, the loser of the popular vote — this time by over 2.3 million votes — has won the Electoral College to become president. So, where did this peculiar institution come from? From that other peculiar institution, slavery.

When the Constitution was negotiated, the southern slave-owning aristocrats were concerned that the northern states would dominate the country and eventually abolish slavery. The first great slavery compromise was to grant these aristocrats three-fifths of a vote for every slave they owned. The second was the Electoral College. Even if blacks, other minorities, non-land owning white men, or even women were allowed to vote, they could be disenfranchised in practice without it affecting that state’s Electoral College voting power since it is based on population, not on actual voters. And the Electoral College system carried over the imbalance created by granting each state two senators, regardless of actual population.

Other reasons are trotted out to justify this undemocratic handmaiden of slavery. But back then there was no internet, TV, radio or even telegraph. No highways, no railroads. Most people lived on remote farms and in small isolated rural villages. Travel was slow, difficult, and frequently dangerous. Trade networks were small.

But times have changed. With a few taps on a keyboard, I can talk to someone in Antarctica, China, even Wyoming. I can read newspapers from all over the world. I can get on an airplane and be in urban centers anywhere on the planet within a couple of days. I can buy a camera lens from Japan in minutes and receive it in one week.

Yet, we are still choosing the leader of our country with a compromise created to prolong the moral stain of slavery, in a time when the modern interconnectedness of our country by communications, travel, and trade was simply unimaginable.

It’s past time for this country to finally realize the democratic promise of the American revolution and get rid of that peculiar 18th century anachronism, the Electoral College. But how? Obviously, whatever party or interests benefit at any particular time are not going to willingly give up the power they’ve gained. Amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College is unlikely to happen anytime soon for that reason.

But polls going back generations consistently show the vast majority of Americans want direct election of the president. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among states to award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote for president. It will go into effect when states holding 270 electoral votes — the number needed to choose the president — enter into the compact.

Currently, 10 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted legislation to implement the compact. Washington state joined the compact in 2009. Together, these states have 165 electoral college votes, 61 percent of the total needed. One or both legislative bodies in 12 other states have passed the compact. If these states join the compact, the compact would go into force.

It’s time for equality in voting. It’s time to finally give full force to those words we learned in elementary school: All men are created equal.

For more information on the history of the electoral college, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)

http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slav ery/

For more information on the National Popular Vote Compact, see:

http://www.nationalpopu larvote.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact