Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

What is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is a system in which the president and vice president are chosen indirectly, alternatively, having them chosen by the direct popular vote of the people. Through the Electoral College, a candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes to be declared president. If neither candidate obtains a majority, the US House of Representatives selects the president from the top three contenders. There are many positives and negatives regarding this system of government and after researching and analyzing this topic, I was able to take a stance on whether or not the Electoral College should or should not be abolished. The Electoral College should be abolished because small states are over-represented,

First of all, with the Electoral College system in play, small states are highly over-represented. “No matter how big or how small, each and every state in the US is allocated at a minimum, three electoral votes; two senators and one representative or more depending on the population of that particular state.” (Document A) In order to make this possible, bigger states must give away some of their electoral votes to the smaller states, making smaller states highly represented and bigger states not so highly represented. For further example, here is an excerpt taken from “The Indefensible Electoral College” written by Bradford Plumer, “Because each state casts only one

Democracy is the essence of America, so why isn’t it the essence of the way we choose our leader? Democracy is government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them. “The Electoral College violates political equality. It favors some citizens over others,” (Document D). The purpose of a democracy is that the citizens get to choose who they want to govern them, in this case, a democratic voting system would mean that everyone’s vote is equal and everyone’s vote is valued just as much as the other, despite where you live or how many people live in your state. Consequently, by having an Electoral College, this is not the case. “Perhaps most worrying is the prospect of a tie in the electoral vote. In that case, the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, where state delegations vote on the president.” (Document F). This means, that if the Electoral College was to tie, the House of Representatives would choose our President, making our votes somewhat meaningless and our opinions tossed to the side. This causes much controversy because citizens feel as though their opinions are not being taken into account or valued; therefore, violating political equality becomes the topic of issue. “It is not a neutral counting device… (I)t favors some citizens over others, depending solely upon the state in