The Electoral College: Reminder for Reform

They could scarcely have known it at the time, but 48,245 North Carolinians who voted for the Republican ticket on Nov. 5 wound up casting their ballots for George Wallace instead. This switch was decided for them by Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey, a physician from Rocky Mount and one of 13 electors chosen by the state's voters to reflect their choice. By tradition, all the electoral votes should have gone automatically to Richard Nixon as winner of a plurality of the state's popular vote. Rather than ratify the Republican victory, however, Bailey, a loyal John Bircher, handed over one-thirteenth of...

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