Everyone is in an uproar because of the use of the Electoral College during this election cycle. Do people understand that a President has lost the popular vote and has won the presidency? Most recently, this was during the Gore versus Bush election in 2000. Al Gore had won the popular vote and George W. Bush won the presidency. This was another time that a Republican had won the electoral votes over the popular vote for the Democratic party.
The United States is a republic, not a democracy. There is nothing wrong with this, but I don’t think people understand that this country is technically not a democracy. When we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we say, “to the Republic for which it stands,” not “to the Democracy.” Some people are upset because they feel like their democracy isn’t helping them out. Well, that’s just the thing. The United States isn’t a Democracy.
Of course the Electoral College helps out the Republicans more than it will ever help out the Democrats, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Now, I am not just saying this because I consider myself a Republican, but because the Electoral College has always been a good thing. I do believe it is outdated and needs revision, but it should never be taken away completely. I do not think it’s fair that many states are “winner-take-all” states, meaning that whoever has the majority of the popular vote in a certain state wins the entire state’s electoral votes (meaning that California will generally always get all fifty-five votes and Texas will probably always get all thirty-eight votes). I believe if they allocated the votes more evenly, like Maine does (who gave three electoral votes to Clinton and one to Trump), then the system would be better. But the Electoral College should never be abolished.
The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College for many reasons. Number one, they didn’t trust the citizens of the United States to choose the President. Yes, stupid people are allowed to vote. People who do not do their research are allowed to vote. In a country where eleven-thousand people woke up, got out of bed, drove to their polling station, and wrote in Harambe, a dead gorilla, we need the Electoral College. These are the stupid people that I am talking about who are allowed to vote.
Also, the Founding Fathers believed that every state deserved equal representation during elections. There is nothing wrong with that! What isn’t fair about South Dakota (with three electoral votes) having as much of a say as California (with fifty-five electoral votes)? If you look at a map of the United States, you should see the colors of red and blue. The blue is located more in big cities across the country and big cities can have a higher population than a state itself. So why is it fair that the big cities choose the President? Every state should have a say in who their President should be. There are fifty states in this country and every state is just as much a part of this country as a larger state is.
For example, if you look at the map of Pennsylvania, the big cities are blue, and the rural areas are always red (except for Centre County this year). The suburbs outside Philadelphia also turned their counties blue. Pennsylvania is considered a swing state because of this, meaning it could go either way, and this year, Pennsylvania went red but that hasn’t happened in a long time. This is because Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the surrounding counties are able to turn the state blue. The cities have such high populations, so they are able to turn an entire state blue. How is that fair at all?
I do agree that the Electoral College should be revised because it's been awhile since its inception, but I do not think it should ever be abolished. Of course the Republicans are helped out more by the Electoral College. If big cities chose the President, the President would almost always be a Democrat. It isn’t fair that big cities are able to determine the President just because of their populations. Every state should have a say in who their President is, and that is why the popular vote does not choose the President.
