Replying to the letter to the editor on March 11 concerning democracy government and the Electoral College. Number one — the United States has a republic form of government. Webster’s Dictionary describes a republic as a state in which the sovereign power is vested in representatives chosen by the people. A democracy is described as a government ruled by the people, not representatives. Read the constitution.

Also a little about the electoral college. The United States’ Founders created the electoral college to ensure that all states were fairly represented.

There are 3,141 counties in the United States. In 2016, President Trump won 3,084 of them. Hillary Clinton won 57. There are 62 counties in the state of New York. President Trump won 46 of them, Hillary Clinton won 16. Hilary Clinton won the popular vote by approximately 1.5 million votes. In the five counties that encompass New York City, Hillary Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump. Therefore, these five counties alone more than accounted for Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country. These five counties comprise of 319 square miles. The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles.

When you have a country that encompasses almost four million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election. Large densely populated cities do not and should not speak for the entire country. This is why our forefathers came up with the electoral college so every state has an equal opportunity to voice their vote. If we went to a popular vote Iowans would not need to vote as New York City has a higher population than the whole state of Iowa.