Top 10 Reasons It’s Time to Abolish the Electoral College

December 14, 2016

Top 10 Reasons It’s Time to Abolish the Electoral College

This November was no doubt an exciting one. For what seemed like an eternity, multiple candidates battled for the title of American President, each spending millions of dollars on campaign advertisements, media engagements, and travel tickets to proclaim their ideas and aspirations to the American people. As citizens of the United States, we watched with fervor. Over the course of several months, we watched as each of the candidates took the stand to proclaim their views and describe how they would fix our financial crisis, aid foreign policy, and enhance

healthcare and education for millions around the nation. Over time, we began to form opinions about certain candidates based on our own personal experiences and beliefs. Then, on November 8^th, we were prompted to go to our local office and cast our vote for the one person we thought would be best suited for American President. Many of us did this with pride and great dedication to the red, white, and blue. For those of us who can vote, we have been told time and time again that our vote matters. We beg to ask, does it? Few people have a true understanding of the Electoral College and what happens to our vote after it is cast in our local office. The Electoral College is simply a process, not a place or a person. It was established as a compromise between Congress and the citizens of the United States. Considering it was put into place hundreds of years ago, is it still an effective system? Here are ten reasons why it is time to abolish the Electoral College.

10Popular Vote versus Electoral Vote – Winner Takes All

The electoral system is flawed and should be replaced.

9Swing States

Swing states under the electoral system have too much power.

8Safe States

Safe states don’t have enough say.

7Distribution of Electoral Votes

Opponents of the Electoral College also feel that the distribution of Electoral Votes is uneven and unfair between states. When the Electoral College was first put into place, it was intended as a compromise between Congressional votes and the votes of United States citizens. In part, it was established to make every citizen and every state feel accounted for and important in a federalist government. When the Electoral College was first created, they knew that they could not base the number of votes each state received on its population alone. Smaller, rural states, in this case, would be completely irrelevant in an election. As a result, they gave each state a minimum of three electoral votes. While this certainly helped to ensure that smaller, more rural states had a say in a presidential election, it also created some disparities. If you were to compare the population and number of electoral votes of Texas versus the population and number of electoral votes of Wyoming, you can clearly see where the discrepancy lies. Wyoming has three electoral votes for a little over 500,000 people, while Texas has 32 electoral votes for roughly 25 million people. If you were to break down the number of people per electoral vote, there are way more people per elector, if you will, in Texas than in Wyoming. So, why does this matter? Smaller states, as a result, have greater Electoral power per person. This means that the value of one’s vote changes depending on what state they live and vote in. When it comes to adequately running a Democratic nation, this is an unfair and unjust way to divide the votes and calculate the results.