The Pros And Cons Of American Electoral College

It can come as a surprise to many that it does not necessarily matter which candidate receives the most votes in an American presidential election. It is often taught in schools that the United States is based on democracy, where everyone has a voice and a vote in elections. While this is true, it can easily confuse many when it comes to the American Electoral College. The electoral college, founded along with many of the other building blocks of the United States in the Constitution, was a compromise between those who supported a complete democracy in the presidential election with each citizen contributing an equal vote to all other citizens and those who supported a system in which the legislators in Congress would elect a president. This

In addition, this claim assumes that, if the Electoral College was eliminated, only focusing on large, urban population centers would guarantee a candidate victory. This ignores the fact that these large cities still only make up part of the population, and ignoring these populations would be a large mistake for a candidate looking to win. According to the United States Census Bureau, “one in five Americans live in rural areas” (America Counts Staff). If a candidate chose to campaign in only urban or suburban areas, they would never reach a fifth of the American population. Due to this, a candidate would not end up campaigning in cities as supporters of the Electoral College often claim, and to say they would is an underestimate of the strategy that goes into presidential campaigning. Though the Electoral College is a cornerstone of American government and politics from its conception in the early years of the United States to modern day, its time and purpose has come and gone and the Electoral College, as we know it, should be placed in the country’s rearview