The most recent Presidential election, this last year in 2016, marked the fifth time that the winning candidate did not receive the popular vote. As Los Angeles Times author Savage (2016) explains, “For only the fifth time in U.S. history, the presidential campaign has ended with an electoral college winner who won fewer votes than his opponent” (para. 1). The fact that Donald Trump became the President of the United States was not due to the lack of effort of some “65,794,399 citizens” who voted for Hillary Clinton (U.S. National Archives, 2017). The idea that a person can become the President of our great country without receiving the popular vote can be troubling for some people, me included. Common sense would dictate that the person who …show more content…
It is unbelievable that the legitimate requirement for being elected Leader of the Free World is to receive 270 electoral votes, rather than the majority of the population’s vote. One might think that by winning 270 electoral votes that politician would be winning with the support of the majority of our country, but that simply is not the case. Ruderman with Firefox did the math on this idea and presents the following information (2004), “A presidential candidate could be elected with as a little as 21.8% of the popular vote by getting just over 50% of the votes in DC and each of 39 small states. In other words, a candidate could lose with 78.2% of the popular vote by getting just under 50% in small states and 100% in large states” (para. 1). The idea that a person can be elected president with support from only 22% of the general population in our country doesn’t add up with the idea of Democracy. Our country was founded on the idea that everyone is created equal, but our method of electing the President suggests that only 22% of our population is equal, the rest are inferior. Our leader should be nominated by having the support of the majority of our people, not the minority. The President should be elected by a popular vote because allowing 22% of the population to have control of our leader goes against everything our democracy stands