Electoral College.

While the Electoral College system may have worked in the 1800’s, when campaigning was difficult because of the lack of media and ability to travel quickly, I believe it is not the system that represents our voices fairly today.  In my opinion, the Electoral College fails to accurately represent the will of the people.

The division of the Electoral votes can give more power to some states. For instance, in 1988 each Floridian’s individual vote had only thirty-three percent of the weight of an individual  vote in Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, South and North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. Depending on the state, individual votes can carry various weights. This completely eliminates the idea that one person gets one whole vote. In my opinion, each citizen should be represented as one full vote, not a partial vote depending on the population of their state.

The majority rule in the Electoral College allows for the winner of the Presidential Election not to have the direct popular vote. Washington State has eleven Electoral votes, which means that if seven of those votes wanted one candidate, Washington State would vote for that candidate. This is extremely unfair to the other five Electoral votes that wanted another candidate, because their votes would be transferred to the majority candidate. In my perspective, the other five votes are not for the majority candidate, so it is misrepresentation of the people’s will to allow those votes to choose another elect.

In 2000, George W. Bush won the Electoral College, however Al Gore won the direct popular vote. I believe that if the nation wanted Al Gore, but Bush was elected, then our system is clearly flawed. However, the 200 election did follow the format the Framers of the Constitution set down for us. George Bush won 271 of the electoral votes, while Al Gore won 261, therefore following the system the Constitutional Convention set down, Bush was elected president.

Our nation was built on the idea that we should be for the people, by the people. The Electoral College can misrepresent the will of the people; therefore it is not a valid way to elect a President.