EVERY STATE MATTERS.

• Author: Ross, Tara
• Position: Electoral college

"The great enemy of truth," John F. Kennedy once said, "is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth... persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."

Such myths threaten to tear down a constitutional institution that Kennedy once vigorously defended before Congress. Our 35th president was a supporter of the Electoral College, and he surely would have hated the constant drip of misinformation about the system.

These misperceptions threaten the very existence of the U.S.'s unique presidential election process. Perhaps the most pervasive of these myths is that "only swing states matter" because of the Electoral College, but are safe states really so unimportant in American presidential elections? Are some voters ignored?--emphatically no.

Interestingly, Electoral College opponents speak out of both sides of their mouth on this issue. For instance, if Texas "doesnt matter" because ft is a safe red state, then why are so many Republicans worried that the state soon will turn purple--and why are so many Democrats celebrating that very possibility? Texas and its 38 electors matter very much. The GOP takes Texas for granted at its own peril. Democrats feel the same way about California and New York.

Indeed, history is replete with stories of allegedly "safe" states changing sides and making a difference. States' allegiances are like a pendulum, swinging back and forth, depending on current events and the political parties' responses to them. Political parties that fail to pay attention will feel the ramifications at the polls.

California once was as staunchly Republican as it is Democratic today. Meanwhile, Texas once was reliably blue, voting for Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter in 1976. Similarly, several southern states voted for Democratic candidate Bill Clinton in the 1990s, but they have not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since.

Moreover, who can forget the election of 2000? Much is made of Florida and the outcome of its vote that year, but George W. Bush would have lost the election if he had not flipped the safe little blue state of West Virginia. Democrats long had been taking the state for granted, and West Virginia had finally had enough. The state went from safe blue to safe red, all in one election cycle.

The examples do not stop there. In 2016, the tiny safe red state of Utah threatened to go rogue. Voters did not like Donald Trump, but they did not like Hillary Clinton, either. It was...