The electoral college system is flawed
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Electoral Colleges serve an important purpose during elections in terms of votes.
With the upcoming primary and general presidential elections, many Americans will cast their vote for their favorite candidate. But their votes are trivial, due to the electoral college system still in place in the United States.
Since the first time it was counted in 1824, the popular vote has done little to nothing. The popular vote is simply there to determine which electors will vote in the electoral college election. In fact, in the first presidential election where the popular vote was counted, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote, but fell short in the electoral vote by 32 electors.
Since then, four presidential elections have ended with the winner of the popular vote losing to the winner of the electoral vote.
Most recently, in his 2016 election campaign against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, but he secured the electoral vote. Trump simply did not win the vote of the American people, and the votes of 3 million people were disregarded due to an outdated system.
The point of the electoral college was to preserve the “sense of the people,” by ensuring that intelligent men would choose the president.
Yet five times in United States history, the electoral college system has not worked the way it is supposed to. It would require a constitutional amendment to change the electoral college system, but no amendment has been approved since 1992, so the likelihood of this happening is slim to none without a major increase in opposition to the electoral college.
The founding fathers thought that electoral college was the best way to choose the president, but the reasons they thought that are no longer relevant. Modern technology allows voters to make an informed decision as to which candidate they see fit for presidency.
The electoral college is no longer reasonable as it gives too much power to “swing states” and completely ignores the will of the people. Out of 300 million people in the United States, it is nonsensical that just 538 people, the electoral college voters, get to decide the presidency.
The electoral college system in the United States should be abolished. The only fair system is the popular voting system, which would ensure that the president would be truly chosen by the people.
Senior Alli Schroeder is a multimedia editor in her third year on staff. When she is not writing, she can be found making her own clothes or earrings,...
Susan Anthony • Feb 12, 2020 at 8:42 pm
The National Popular Vote bill is 73% of the way to guaranteeing the majority of Electoral College votes and the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country, by changing state winner-take-all laws (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but later enacted by 48 states), without changing anything in the Constitution, using the built-in method that the Constitution provides for states to make changes.
It requires enacting states with 270 electoral votes to award their electoral votes to the winner of the most national popular votes.
All voters would be valued equally in presidential elections, no matter where they live.