The electoral college creates the possibility for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote. In other words, a candidate can receive far more votes than their opponent, but with the complications of the electoral college can still lose the presidency. This was seen in the 2000 election, where a President was elected without winning the popular vote. In the 2000 election, Al Gore received more than half a million more votes than George W. Bush but he still lost the presidency to Bush. Some say this does not happen often, but the Bush/Gore election was not the first time a presidential candidate was robbed a presidency. This is definitely not something new, it has happened at least four times out of the 56 presidential elections, or more than seven percent of the time. Andrew Jackson in 1824 also won the popular vote but did not win the presidency. This is just truly undemocratic!
Whatever happened to our votes counting? With the electoral system our votes certainly do not count. Democracy is supposed to be a system that elects its government and representatives by the whole population and any other way that is not representative of the people is not democratic. This way of doing things allows a candidate to use the broken system to their advantage instead of campaigning for votes. Since the Electoral College is a winner takes all system, a candidate who wins the popular vote of a state by a just one vote, has the possibility of winning all the electoral votes of that state. It is also important to note that “different states have different rules” making the whole process more complicated.
What needs to happen is the electoral college needs to be gone because it does not produce the people’s choice. As the proud Democratic country, America proud itself to be, we need to come together and tell our congress to pass bills that would abolish this system, which clearly does not favor us and one that that allows a President to be elected even though a majority of the country did not elect him/her.
It is time that we revoke the Electoral College and rely exclusively on a national popular vote to elect the President of the United States. It is time that electing our President is based solely on who the majority of the people want. The Electorate college has too many visible problems and flaws to be used to choose the President of the United States. Without the Electoral College, the vote of every American voter citizen would finally be equal. Democracy and the will of the people would finally be restored, and under this new system, when we go to the polls to elect the President we would actually be voting for President, and not instructing delegates or electors and telling them who we want them to vote for. With the Electoral College, the voting power of the people have been always unequally distributed across the nation. It’s time that we begin to truly amend this broken process and finally restore democracy.
