In his famous speech at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said the, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This country should be run by the people, not by the group of people known collectively as the Electoral College. Proponents of the Electoral College say it helps the country’s cohesiveness, enhances minority interests, and stabilizes the government by encouraging a two-party system, but these benefits are negligible in comparison to the issues. The Electoral College should be disbanded due to the possibility of electing a minority president, the risk of faithless electors, the depression of voter turnout, and the inability to accurately reflect the popular opinion.
When it was created, the Electoral College was a necessary part of our government. At this time, the United States was composed of 13 colonies suspicious of the national government and of each other, and political parties were frowned upon. Campaigning for public office was rare because a relatively small number of people were spread across the east coast and it was seen that office should seek the man rather than the man seeking office. It was impractical to trust the public with the responsibility of electing a leader because they were looking to sabotage other colonies and wanted to assume power over the national government. The general public knew virtually nothing about candidates for office and would not be an effective way of electing the best leader. The president would always be elected as a “favorite son” from the largest states or even worse, no candidate would achieve the majority of votes needed. The framers of the Constitution doubted the overall public intelligence and the information given to voters about candidates; they rightfully feared the president would always be elected from the largest state or no majority would be reached.
Times have changed, and it is no longer necessary to have an Electoral College because citizens are now better educated, less biased, and well informed. The Electoral College proposes the problem of electing a president who loses the popular vote. In the controversial presidential election of 2000 between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, Bush won the presidency despite the fact that Gore received a higher percentage of the popular vote. This happened because Bush won several battle states by slim margins while the majority of Gore’s popular votes were highly concentrated in a few states. It is unjust that the candidate who won the most votes lost the election, and the fault lies within the Electoral College. The presence of multiple popular candidates can cause no majority to be reached also allowing the election of a minority leader. A candidate could yield his votes in support of another candidate who wins, or the U.S. House of Representatives could select the president with the power from the 12th Amendment.
Although these occurrences are few and far between, “faithless electors” break their vow to vote for a party’s candidate and vote for someone else. Most recently in 1988, an elector decided to vote against the desire of his constituents in order to make a statement. Although this event has never changed the course of an election, it has the potential to do so. There is no sense putting the future of our nation into the hands of someone who may disagree with what the constituents support and vote against it. We hand too much power to these individuals as they have the ability to change elections if they choose, and they are simply unneeded.
On the contrary, perhaps the biggest problem with the Electoral College is voter depression. In areas where voters feel they make no impact, voter turnout is decreased. In the recent presidential election of 2012, swing states had higher voting percentages than in non-battleground states such as Kentucky. Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and Iowa among others experienced significant increases in swing states, while states such as Kentucky but especially California and Alaska plummeted in voter turnout. A large number of constituents choose not to vote in polarized states because their votes will not change the way their state votes. Voter turnout is already pitiful at just over 50% and this is a huge problem. To increase this startling statistic, the Electoral College needs to be abolished. An election based on popular vote will drastically improve the voter turnout because citizens will recognize the increased importance of their votes.
The basis of all complaints of the Electoral College come from the inability to correctly reflect the popular vote. A huge problem with the current Electoral College is the primarily winner-take all process where the presidential candidate with the higher popular vote taking all the electoral votes of that state. Independent and third party candidates struggle to make a showing in the Electoral College because they rarely have as many popular votes as the other candidates. Furthermore, rural areas are over-represented because the number of electoral votes are based on population size, but all states are also granted a guaranteed 2 votes. A problem associated with this is misrepresented results in elections. In the most recent election, Barack Obama seemed to decimate opposing candidate Mitt Romney by 126 electoral votes. However, Obama only won the popular vote by 2.5%, a margin closer than people realize.
Supporters of the Electoral College believe it increases cohesiveness throughout the nation because a candidate must receive support from across the country in order to win. Also they state that it enhances minority interests and helps to stabilize government by encouraging a two-party system. Although these arguments deserve merit, the Electoral College causes more problems than it fixes and is unnecessary. Without the Electoral College, we would eliminate the possibility of electing a minority president, increase voter turnout, properly reflect the public will, and get rid of electors disobeying their party.
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/
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