Electoral College Be Abolished

Should the Electoral College be Abolished? After the 2000 presidential election, and more recently the 2016 election, many have suggested that America abolish the electoral college, as it has elected the candidate with the lower popular vote on multiple occasions. Although a direct democratic approach to presidential elections (where the election is decided by popular vote) appears to many as an appropriate solution, this approach would grant too much power to large metropolitan areas, make rural votes practically irrelevant, and take away power from states. In order to prevent a situation like such, the electoral college should not be abolished—it must remain, but slight alterations should be made so that America is more equally represented.

It would be extremely difficult to add a constitutional amendment and remove the electoral college, and the current electoral college disproportionately represents some, thus some sort of reform is necessary to maintain the peace. According to the USA Today’s editorial board, “one idea worth considering is to shift away from winner-take-all in each state to a proportional allocation of electors based on statewide vote totals.” This election method would make all states like Nebraska and Maine, where electoral votes may be divided amongst parties. In using this system, the popular vote would be more important, but would not be the ultimate deciding factor of the election, essentially combining the arguments for the two opposing sides. The number of electoral votes for each state should not change, as that would mean the population of congress would have to change. Since a state’s number of electoral votes is representative of its house members and senate members, the way electoral votes are awarded should be changed. The popular vote within a congressional district should determine one electoral vote for the state; therefore, all of the congressional districts within a state would account for all but two of the state’s electoral votes. The two other electoral votes—the votes determined as a result of the number of senators (always two)—should be awarded based on popular vote

A direct democracy grants the people too much power, prevents equal representation of the whole nation, and takes power away from states. If no change occurs, however, the electoral college must remain, as abolition of it would splinter American politics and destroy the sense of unity present in