Oct 18, 2023 2 min read

‘One citizen, one vote’ is the fairest system

I was surprised by the letter to the editor published on Friday, “Urban centers should not decide presidential elections.”

My understanding of democracy is that decisions are best decided by “one citizen, one vote.” That is as fair as a country can be. One reason we haven’t reached that level of fairness is because when our country was founded, the basic distinction was between areas that were “settled” and areas that were “frontier.” The frontier, of course, was less inhabited. The Electoral College system gave more weight than “one citizen, one vote” to frontier areas to entice them to become states. In fact, the result today is that votes in many rural states unfairly count more than votes in larger states. That’s the basic issue with the Electoral College.

The letter writer seems upset that “urban centers always decide how the rest of the state should go…” Well, there are more people that live in cities than in rural areas, but there are certainly people of all political persuasions in every city. That’s why the fairest system is “one citizen, one vote,” and not “people that live in the country should have equal representation.” More importantly, if you believe in democracy, which requires a free press and an informed citizenship – which today means testing information and doubting practically anything on the internet – you realize that in a democracy, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

It doesn’t matter where you live in the state. What matters is whether your viewpoint represents the majority.

Gerard Weiss

Upper St. Clair