Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

The first words in the Constitution are “We the people”, yet the Electoral College takes away power from the people to directly elect a President. To better understand the Electoral College, we will delve into the basics of the Electoral College and presidential elections, the pros and cons of the Electoral College in modern times, and a specific instance in which the Electoral College majorly affected the outcome of an election. The government should abolish the Electoral College, so United States citizens can directly elect whom they feel should head the Executive Branch. To begin, the Electoral College is a process, not an educational institution. Essentially, the government created the Electoral College to protect the interests of high

In contrast, according to the Huffington Post, “In Nebraska and Maine… the top vote-getter in those states wins two electoral votes… while the remaining electoral votes are allocated congressional district by congressional district.” (“What is the Electoral College?”). In turn, Nebraska and Maine allow for candidates from both parties to receive Electoral College votes through proportional representation. On the other hand, with the winner-takes-all system, presidential candidates are more likely to spend their time trying to win over states like California and New York because of their massive population and number of Electoral votes. California has the most Electoral votes in the country with 55, so it is important for candidates to win over Californians. Granted, a Republican trying to win over the decidedly liberal Californian population is hopeless, considering California voted for the Democratic nominee in the last seven elections, but California is over 20% of the total 270 Electoral votes a candidate needs to win an election

According to the Huffington Post, “The electors are usually state-elected officials, party leaders, or people with a strong affiliation with the Presidential candidates” (“What is the Electoral College?”). Furthermore, the process for nominating electors in each state varies. Typically speaking, each political party “either nominate slates of potential Electors at their state party conventions or they chose them by a vote of the party's central committee” (“About the Electors”). Therefore, presidential candidates count on their party’s electors to cast votes for them. In the 2016 presidential election, however, there were five “so-called ‘faithless electors’ – electors who cast their ballots for someone other than the official nominee of the party they’re pledged to represent”