Times change; so should election law

In response to Jeff Grady (Fence Post, April 25), there is no great misconception on my part regarding the Electoral College.

With the current presidential election process, I agree with you there are 50 elections, one in each state.

But this is a national election with approximately 200 million people of voting age in 50 states and four territories.

One of the beliefs of the Founding Fathers is that people in the time period that the Constitution was devised were not educated nor informed enough to cast an intelligent vote for the presidency nor for senate seats.

Our current mass media is something far beyond anything envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Since its inception, the Constitution has been amended 27 times.

Of interest in this discussion are the following three amendments.

Since senators were elected to their office in much the same way as presidential elections continue to this day, the 17th amendment went into effect in 1913 whereby there was a change to direct election of senators by the people.

Primarily due to improved communications and transportation, the 20th amendment went into effect in 1933 whereby the presidential inauguration was moved up from March 4 to January 20.

And after Franklin Roosevelt was voted in as president four times, the 22nd amendment went into effect in 1951 limiting someone to two elected terms in office.

My point in bringing up these three amendments pertaining to federally elected offices is that times change.

The Founding Fathers created the option for amendments to this great document created 220 years ago.

I appreciate the historical viewpoint in your reference to the Federalist Papers. But I would hope you would appreciate that the Constitution has been and can be amended. The point remains that the Electoral College is well past its prime.

Kevin Martin

Schaumburg