The Practicality Of The Electoral College

The United States hinges on the statues of a democracy, right? At least that is what the founding fathers envisioned. However, the Electoral College, the United States presidential voting system, has made various notable figures and scholars question its use in modern day society. I strongly contend that the Electoral College is not a legitimate and effective vehicle for electing presidents. Although the Electoral College is a foundational aspect of the US government, it needs to be reexamined, amended, or replaced with, perhaps, a direct voting system, in spite of those that argue that a direct voting system would allow too much large power to the states (Limbaugh, 2000). Nonetheless, the Electoral College is a flawed voting system for various

In the 2016 presidential election Donald Trump, a generally unfavored Republican candidate, won presidency under the Electoral College. Democrat nominee, Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, won the popular vote—the vote that represents the actual votes of the citizens, not the electors of each state. Clinton won nearly 3 million more votes than Trump and lost the election because of the Electoral College. The George Bush v. Albert Gore Jr. 2000 presidential election results demonstrate the same outcome. Gore won the popular vote, but ultimately, Bush won the presidency because he won the Electoral College (Boxer, 2017). These scenarios not only blatantly imply an obvious flaw in the voting system, but also demonstrate that the candidate who won the Electoral College and not the popular vote strictly misrepresent the political opinion of majority of the population. Five times in US history, a presidential candidate won presidency solely because of the Electoral College. In contrast, it should be duly noted that the presidency is the only office in the US where the candidate with the most votes does not win the election (Boxer, 2017). For governors, legislators, senators, and other political positions, the candidate who wins the most votes from the citizens or electing body ultimately wins their election, or in some cases, reelection. Therefore, the Electoral

Traditionally, in a democracy, the people directly vote for their candidate, not the officials; and the majority rules. However, the Electoral College ignores the popular vote disallowing the popular candidate presidency. Instead, the candidate with the most electoral votes (a certain number of votes assigned to each state based on its population) wins presidency. The Electoral College is an unfair system because hundreds of votes are wiped out and wholly consumed by the number of electors in each state. California Senator, Barbra Boxer states that, the Electoral College “violates the principle of one person one vote” (Boxer, 2017, p. 2), a principle that was pronounced in the US Supreme Court Case, Gray v. Sanders (Jefferson-Jenkins, 2001). Although this case addressed voter equality among different state counties, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that all state elections have to obey the “one person, one vote” principle. Nonetheless, because of a lack of voter equality through the Electoral College, it is questionable if US citizens themselves are fully able to elect leaders, a statue that is promised by a true democracy. Today, voters are denied their freedom to cast their bona fide vote and have it count