Voting and the governmental system of democracy have existed for thousands of years, from Athens’ direct democracy in the 4th and 5th century B.C.E. to Iceland’s Althing, one of the oldest parliamentary institutions in the world, founded in 930 A.D. (Barksdale). Republics and democracies have now become the most widely used and accepted system of government in Europe, as well as North and South America. While there are countless different types of democracy around the world today, there is a common denominator amongst all of them: voting for leaders and representatives. Voting is a fundamental characteristic of a democracy, and the implementation of an electoral system is arguably one of the most critical decisions for any democratic country; …show more content…
In the United States, the founders created the Electoral College as a way of maintaining states’ rights while also maintaining the U.S.’ system of federalism (Samples). The Electoral College assigns each state a certain number of electors based on population. Citizens in each state vote for the candidate of their choice, and the candidate that wins in that state is awarded all of the electoral votes, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska which proportionally allocate the votes. No region or demographic in the U.S. currently has the majority necessary to swing an election. Thus, proponents of the Electoral College assert that this strengthens the country’s sense of unity by requiring a candidate’s support to be distributed throughout the country in order for the candidate to be elected. Many claim that without this system, the president could potentially be elected solely by the votes of densely populated urban areas (Kimberling). However, the flaw in this argument is that while the candidate may require widespread support, the candidate does not require a majority to win the election, such as in the presidential elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 (Revesz). As can be seen especially clearly in the elections of 2000 and 2016, when a president fails to win a majority of people’s votes but still wins the