Many American’s pride themselves on the fact that the United States allows its people the right to use a popular vote to select their leaders and laws, which gives the people the opportunity to voice their concerns and opinions as a way to create the country that they love. However, as a first time voter in the upcoming election for president, I have come to find that the idea of a popular vote selecting out our Commander in Chief is more fantasy than fact. Our President is actually chosen in fact, not by a popular vote determined by the votes of the majority of citizens, but instead by the votes of the Electoral College, a group of “electors” which are intended to represent the states to congress. I had always known that the Electoral College existed, as I, like all other American children, learned about it in a grade school and high school U.S. History courses, but I never really understood the implications of the Electoral College’s existence in the United States. As I began brushing up on my civics knowledge as I prepared to cast my first vote in the presidential election this coming November, the Electoral College again popped up as a topic of interest to me; the more that I learned about its existence, the more I wish to encourage Americans to ditch the Electoral College in favor of a pure popular vote as the system we use to elect our nation’s leader.

If you are not familiar with why the Electoral College exists, it all began when the founding fathers decided in favor of having the Electoral College for two reasons. One of these reasons was to give more power to smaller states in the election, and the other, and perhaps more interesting reason, was a fear of “pure” democracy. The idea of the people selecting the president by a direct election actually scared our founding fathers, as they believed that some people might be mislead or tricked into voting for a dishonest candidate or a candidate who would completely overthrow the American system of government. In short, the founding father’s didn’t trust the American public of the time to select a qualified candidate, so they used the Electoral College as a safety net to ensure that someone whom they approved of would always end up in office.

In our modern day and age, the Electoral College is not only a waste of time and resources, but it is an insult on the public’s ability to select a leader as well as an infringement on the people’s right to select their leader based on a popular vote. The Electoral College makes it possible for a candidate who has not won the popular vote to win the presidential race, and violates the people’s right to have a leader who won by majority rule. Furthermore, third party candidates are practically obliterated by the Electoral College system, unjustly limiting the people’s choices when selecting a leader. Additionally, there are no federal laws which bind Electors to vote in accordance with the popular vote, and it is only in 26 states and Washington D.C. that the Electors are bound by state law or party pledges to vote in accordance with the people’s popular vote.

There is no need for an Electoral College to act as a middle man between the people and Congress in 2016 and polls have consistently shown that the majority of the American public is in favor or doing away with the archaic practice. However, because the idea of the Electoral College is part of the U.S. Constitution, an amendment to the Constitution would be required to change or eliminate the Electoral College. Although there have been more proposals for amendments to the Constitution presented in Congress regarding changing and/or doing away with the Electoral College than any other subject to date, thus far, no presented proposal to eliminate the Electoral College has come close to successful in passing through Congress. Although the process of eliminating the Electoral College may be an arduous one, I strongly encourage the majority of the American public who is in favor of doing so to speak up against this unnecessary infringement on our rights and insult to our intelligence and dignity, and to stand up for our right to elect our leaders.