By partitioning the popular vote among 51 constituencies (50 states plus the District of Columbia), the electoral college structure serves to restrict vote recounts in close elections to a very few states — just the ones that are closely divided in the popular tally and have sufficient electoral votes to affect the outcome.
Op-Eds
Mark Cayer: A low barrier public shelter is not the cure-all for homelessness
Homelessness is a statewide issue that more significantly impacts service center communities, like Lewiston.
Trump’s economy really was better than Obama’s
Ideally, a Biden administration — which looks increasingly likely — would keep Trump’s three growth-enhancing policies and jettison his trade initiatives.
Catherine Rampell: Trump accidentally admits he’s abandoned working women
Usually, Trump hand-waves away his poor track record on “working women’s” issues. It’s refreshing to hear him admit, even if accidentally, how much he’s let us down.
Fareed Zakaria: Let’s avoid another Bush v. Gore
At stake is the idea of judicial originalism, which holds, in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, that the U.S. Constitution “means today not what current society, much less the court, thinks it ought to mean, but what it meant when it was adopted.”
Marc Thiessen: Trump is one of the best conservative presidents in modern history — if you turn the sound off
What if we turned off our TVs, stopped looking at Twitter and looked at what he has done in office over the past four years? With the sound off, Trump’s is one of the greatest conservative presidencies in modern American history.
Lori Parham: Vote issues that are important to you
In August, AARP Maine launched its non-partisan voter engagement campaign, “Protect Voters 50+,” to support older Mainers as they vote in the November election.
Steven C. Jorgensen and Steven G. Littleson: Addressing our community’s youth vaping problem
Vaping is a serious community health problem that must be addressed through an integrated education, youth counseling and quitting program. That’s why St. Mary’s Health System and Central Maine Medical Center are collaborating with clinicians throughout Androscoggin County in a new evidence-based anti-vaping initiative.
Froma Harrop: Actually, the Democratic Party never moved left
Only 15 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters describe themselves as “very liberal,” according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. More surprisingly, 52 percent of Democratic voters identified as moderate or conservative.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Dear Jared Kushner
How edifying to discover, 401 years later, that the problem was us all along. Freedom, education, wealth, health, not being murdered by mobs … we simply didn’t want them enough. Lazy us.