How can voters elect someone and they not win? Ditch the Electoral College now

I have always thought the Electoral College is undemocratic. It is time for Arizona to embrace the National Popular Vote bill and give all voters representation in our presidential elections.

We need all of our votes to count if we want the president to represent the voice of the people. With our current system, this is not the case.

There has been one too many outcomes in which the loser of the popular vote squeaks by in the Electoral College. How can a president govern without a mandate of the people?

The current winner-takes-all system encourages candidates to campaign only in states they see as beneficial. The National Popular Vote bill will encourage nationwide campaigns and a more inclusive election process.

I invite you to reach out and encourage state legislators to help pass the National Popular Vote bill in Arizona for a more unified election process.

Chris Fleischman, Phoenix

A Biden vote keeps border open

Recently 9,100 people crossed the border illegally into Arizona in just one day.

Some 5 million to 7 million people have illegally entered the U.S. under Joe Biden. That’s only those we know of. Where’s the outrage?

The media who have informed most of our voters call them “migrants,” refusing to use “illegals.” They’re too pious.

Forget for a moment that Joe Biden is feeble, infirm and a decades-long chronic liar. And that he and his family are looking more corrupt every day.

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How could anyone support reelecting a guy who has intentionally done historic and irreversible damage to the country? The makeup of the U.S. is irreparably changed now and forever.

Regardless of how you feel about Donald Trump, it must not override the possibility of four more years of this spineless administration. Crime, education, homelessness, health care and much more will further deteriorate as a result.

Our quality of life is being impacted and will be for the rest of our lives.

Additionally, our relationships with China, Russia and North Korea have become far more treacherous under Joe. We’ve lost respect throughout the world.

A vote for more of this is just plain uninformed and self-righteous.

Dan Lehman, Phoenix

It takes a village to raise a kid

“Kids do better with two parents. Why can’t we just agree it’s true?” says a headline on Phil Boas’ column. In exchange for that cliché, I’ll share this one: “It takes a village to raise a child.”

What both are saying is that the more people who are involved in a child’s life — in positive ways — the better the chances the child will grow up healthy, happy and productive.

For most of human history, people lived with extended family groupings. Even today many people, especially more recent immigrants, live with grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in the same household.

For various reasons, people separate from relatives as they take jobs in other communities. Our society needs to help fill in for those missing second parents by creating a village in the form of public programs at schools.

Nonprofit Big Brother- and Big Sister-type activities can envelop all children in safe, caring environments.

All of that takes money.

Rather than pit groups against each other, focus on what a child needs and then lobby for the funds to provide that when a two-parent family cannot meet all those needs.

Rivko Knox, Phoenix

Deion Sanders' issue is himself

Greg Moore couldn’t resist playing the race card in his Sept. 17 column about Muhammad Ali and Deion Sanders, implying white people can’t tolerate them because of their brashness, bravado and skin color.

Before he became Moore’s hero, Ali refused to serve his country, but served the Nation of Islam, which promoted hatred of white people and Jews in particular.

Ali treated his opponents from Floyd Patterson to Joe Frazier with ridicule and humiliation. I loved it when Frazier beat him.

Deion Sanders may be developing a remarkable football team at Colorado but he pushed out previous Colorado players not with diplomacy or empathy, but with arrogance and spite.

Now he’s applying for four Me, Me, Me trademarks. Extreme narcissism is not an admirable trait.

Mr. Moore needs to understand that, despite prevalent racism in America, many people developed their distaste for Ali and Sanders and their ilk because of the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

James Johnson, Scottsdale

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Electoral College is unfair. Pass a National Popular Vote now