U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa released the following statement Tuesday on calls from Democrats to abolish the Electoral College.
“The U.S. system of government is based on the idea of creating checks and balances so that no one person, branch of government, political party or geographic region of the country gets too powerful, infringing upon the rights of others. America’s Founding Fathers established the Electoral College to make sure smaller, more rural states like Iowa get as much attention from the federal government as bigger, more urban states like New York. Abolishing the Electoral College would be bad news for Iowa and for the Midwest generally. It would mean vital sectors of the economy, regional cultures and entire ways of life wouldn’t have as much of a say in Washington. The voices of farmers, factory workers and so many others in rural America would be drowned out by city dwellers on the coasts.”