The presidential elections are only a few months away. It isimportant to unlearn some of the things that coach probably taughtyou in your high school government class.

First off, you do not live in the greatest democracy in thehistory of the world or a democracy at all, for that matter.America is a federal republic in which the will of the majority istempered by a limited central government and somewhat sovereignstates. So why does it matter if coach got it right or wrong? In arepublic you get the electoral college, and in a democracy themajority wins.

Another myth the coach probably told you is that every votecounts. While this no doubt holds true for electing classpresidents or homecoming queens it does not for national elections.In a state like Texas, which is not considered competitive, theelectoral college does not care if Democrats make it to the pollsor not. Despite the votes of over two million Texans, in 2000, AlGore received zero electoral votes from Texas.

Let’s clear up another matter. When you punched yourhanging chad for George W. Bush, you were not actually voting forhim. Instead you were voting for Texas’ 32 electors. Theseelectors from across the nation then meet to vote again by Dec. 22,and their votes are counted by Jan. 6. It may be nice to have anintermediary elect a leader, but it is also troubling. Of thesefaceless electors from across the nation, 257 of them (only 13short of the votes needed to win the presidency) are not bound bystate law to vote in accordance with the popular vote of theirstate.

Saying that Bush stole the presidency is an old argument, yetthe 2000 elections do provide a cautionary tale (and we’renot just talking about Florida). The results seem counterintuitive.Gore defeats Bush by over half a million votes, yet Bush pulls outfive more electoral votes than Gore.

Over the past 200 years, over 700 proposals have been introducedto modify or eliminate the electoral college. Here are a few moreto add to the list:

• Require states to split their electoral votes along thelines of the popular vote. For instance, in 2000, Bush would havewon 23 percent of Texas’ electoral votes and Gore would havewon 12.

• Legally obligate all electors to vote in accordance withtheir state’s popular vote. While this might just be asymbolic act, so much of politics is so.

• The real fix would be to go to a straight popular vote(even though we are not a democracy). This approach makes sense andwould lead to more competitive elections. Candidates would beworking for every vote rather than seeking to win a bare majorityin competitive states.