Unless you live in a swing state, many feel discouraged to vote because a vote against the state’s choice is filtered out. Trump is the fifth person to become president by winning the electoral vote over popular vote. Clinton is predicted to have won by over 200,000 popular votes, with others still currently being counted for. It's 2016 and we are educated voters. Regardless of whether the Electoral College was the ideal system for our founding fathers hundreds of years ago, laws are meant to be amended over time and we deserve a democratic system. It’s ironic that before the election, Donald Trump talks about how much of a “disaster” the Electoral College is on Twitter, yet without having it in place; he probably would have never been elected president.
Regardless of personal preferences, Hillary Clinton really didn’t have much of a chance against Donald Trump with the Electoral College. I don’t think the first female president will be a Democrat. The fact that she couldn’t even beat Trump says a lot about our represented opinions. Sadly, there are still too many men who refuse to vote for a woman and with the majority white male voter population being Republican, it would be nearly impossible to elect any Democratic woman first president. But this system is flawed because of votes that were silenced. According to John Koza, “[Because] Trump carried Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan by a hair, even though he was losing the people’s vote across the country in all 50 states, meant that he gets all of the electors from those three states.” So not only our votes unheard against the state majority but they are being misrepresented by narrow victories, with more people leaning towards Hillary. The Electoral College encourages people to negatively think that their vote doesn’t matter, like being a Democrat in the Alabama or a Republican in California. Whereas if you had the popular vote, then people would no longer have a reason not to vote because everyone’s opinions would be heard.
A person's location should not be a factor that excludes their vote from being represented. There is a petition circling around to allow the people to decide by popular vote and it currently has over 3.5 million signatures. The petition reads, "[Donald Trump's] scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic." "The only reason Trump 'won' is because of the Electoral College. But the Electoral College can actually give the White House to either candidate. So why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?" You can sign it or read more about it at change.org.
