As a teacher, Mr. Riley should have educated his students that the United States is a representative, constitutional republic, not a democracy. Our founding fathers knew that the majority-rules mentality of a democracy would be a disaster. The Electoral College was designed for fairness. It was an idea to protect the smallest voices. It was yet another valuable check and balance devised by men who understood that powerful people and governments have a tendency to run roughshod over those with less power.
Democracy is little more than mob rule or a dictatorship by majority opinion.
It usually ends in oppression of minorities, be they religious, ethnic, racial or political. Rule of law beats mob rule any day. This same teacher doesn't know his geography either. The election map shows that Bush won 2,434 counties nationwide to Gore's 677. It shows, too, that the population of the Bush counties is 143 million as opposed to Gore's of 127 million.