The Electoral College has been around in the U.S. voting system for a long time. It's our method of deciding our leader, yet it seems to contradict many of the core values of American people. Voters elect people to what we call the Electoral College, a Congress-size group of politicians who decide who they want to be president. This system is very flawed, however, as for a government that is supposedly "by the people and for the people," a surprisingly little amount of people have the power to decide the nation's leader. In fact, ProCon.org reports that the Electoral College is only made up of 538 people in contrast to the almost 300 million people who live in the US; this means only "about 0.000156% of the population [decides] the president." We should stop using the Electoral College because it ignores the will of the general population, and because it places more importance on the votes of some states over others.
The Electoral College system chooses a select amount of people to decide for the nation, and by doing so invalidates the opinions of a large percentage of the population. There have even been presidents who have won their position not through the votes of the people, but through the votes of the Electoral College. The most recent example of this is the 2016 presidential election. Candidate Hillary Clinton had the votes of almost 3 million more people than Donald Trump (Statista), but Trump won the presidency due the the votes of the Electoral College. That's ridiculous! Why should a small group of people have the power to override the opinions of a majority of the U.S. population? By doing this, there is a greater importance being placed on the votes of some Americans over others, and that's not the way our democracy should function. We should get rid of the Electoral College because every individual's vote should be of equal importance, and have a say in the final decision.
The Electoral College also gives certain states more electoral power than other states, which means that their votes are given more importance than other people's votes. For example, the state of Wyoming gets 3 votes in the Electoral College, and their population is about 530,000 people (Fair Vote). In contrast, California has 55 electoral votes (National Archives), which may seem like much more, but these votes are distributed amongst more than 39 million people (Public Policy Institute of California). This means that the votes of Wyoming's residents have 4 times more weight than the votes of California's residents. This gives small states way too much power in the Electoral College, and a big influence on the final result. Another way that certain states' votes are prioritized over others is a concept called swing states. Swing states are states that can just as easily be won by a Democratic or a Republican candidate. When you have especially large swing states with a significant number of votes in the Electoral College, the presidential candidates tend to pay extra attention to these states. In fact, in the 2016 election, both candidates made over "90% of their campaign stops" in only 11 states with a significant amount of votes. The Electoral College places too much importance on small states and big swing states, when all states and all people should have votes of equal weight.
The Electoral College is an ancient system rooted in racism that goes against the very idea of a democracy. It began with an intention to provide a voting advantage to states that had a large population of slaves, which was a majority of the Southern states during the Civil War. By adopting the popular vote instead as a method of deciding the president, we can acknowledge the voices of everyone in the country, as opposed to the current percentage, a little over a millionth of the population. Every person in this country has an equal say in who they want leading us, and this should be reflected in our method of election.
"California's Population." Public Policy Institute of California, Jan. 2023,
www.ppic.org/publication/
2021, www.procon.org/headlines/
Accessed 5 May 2023.
national-popular-vote/
problems-with-the-
States." Statista, 14 Nov. 2016, www.statista.com/statistics/
preliminary-results-of-
Accessed 5 May 2023.
www.archives.gov/
Great blog, Kruthi! The electoral college is something I've thought about and been confused by before, and you did a nice job highlighting all of its flaws. The statistics and history behind the electoral college is quite shocking and interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good blog! I've always been aware of some problems with the voting system in America, but you showed exactly why the electoral college is such an issue. I never knew before that people who lived in smaller states were given such larger weight than those of larger states and I agree that this is something that must be addressed.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post. I always knew there were issues with the electoral college, especially after the 2016 election, but I wasn't aware of its foundation or some of the smaller issues it has. The fact that the weight of the votes of Wyoming residents is 4 times more than that of California residents is ridiculous and goes against the U.S.'s value of equality and freedom.
ReplyDeleteKruthi your blog topic is very interesting, I never really thought about the flaws in the electoral college system.
DeleteThis blog is really though provoking! Before this, I didn't really have any knowledge or opinions on the electoral college besides thinking it was unnecessary. Now, I don't just think it's unnecessary, but also unfair, among many other things. I had no idea of its horrible origins and motivations. Spectacular job!
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