Should Electoral College Be Abolished Research Paper

The Electoral College Needs to be Abolished Every four years, millions of Americans rush to the polls to vote for the next President of the United States of America. What many Americans voting today may not know is that they are participating in an unfair system; this system is taking power from a majority of Americans and placing an emphasis on the few. The best solution to this problem is the simplest one, abolish the Electoral College. The Electoral College should be abolished because of over-representation of small states. “The Electoral College violates political equality”. It is not a neutral counting device. It favors some citizens over others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their vote for president.” This quote

In the current electoral college system, the value of one’s vote heavily depends on the state they reside in. For example, Document A shows that smaller states with fewer residents wield disproportionate influence in presidential elections due to the minimum of three electoral votes they hold, regardless of population size. By abolishing the electoral college, we can ensure that every individual’s vote is equal, no matter where they live, and that every voice is heard on a level playing field in deciding the nation's leader. Another problem with the Electoral College is that it almost always eliminates third-party candidates. In document B, the charts clearly state that no matter how many votes a third party candidate gets, they’re never going to win the electoral vote. This is because the college ensures they get no votes to keep the majority wins rule. According to document B in 1922 the candidates Clinton, Bush, and Perot had various percentages for the popular vote. Clinton’s was 43%, Bush’s was 37.5%, and Perot’s was 18.9%. With all this information it obviously shows that although Perot was not the main candidate to become president, he was still in the running, not far behind

This shows that the Electoral College undercuts the principle of one person, one vote, and therefore violates political equality. “It is not a neutral counting device... it favors some citizens over others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their votes for president” (Document D). Political equality means all citizens are equal and it also allows citizens to partake in state affairs, including the right to vote and the right to challenge elections. The electoral college has trouble endorsing democratic values of the United States. In document E, George Will said “the winner takes all electoral vote allocation tends to produce a winning margin that looks like national decisiveness.” Pretty much he’s saying that because how heavily electoral votes weigh the electoral college gets to choose the president they want. Also because of majority rules there often ends up being a huge gap between the winner and the runner up. With this kind of process, it makes the country look like it all agreed to vote for that person, even if it wasn’t the one who won the popular vote. Along with citizens not