By: Abigail Calandra| Writer
October 10, 2018
A democracy is a government run by the people, but does the electoral college really represent all citizens of the United States?
Some say the electoral college was created due to the general public’s lack of knowledge. The main reason it was originally created, however, was to provide smaller states more leverage in order to prevent the abolition of slavery. Fast forward 150 years, and the electoral college now diminishes the significance of many citizens’ votes. The distribution of votes per state is not equally dispersed; one can be elected with only a small percentage of the popular vote, and faithless electors vote against the will of the people.
The population of California is around 37,254,503 while the population in Wyoming is around 563,767; Wyoming receives 3 votes and California receives 55 votes. One electoral vote in Wyoming counts for 187,923 people while one electoral vote in California counts for 677,355 people; that means a vote in Wyoming counts for 3.6 times as much influence.
The United States government gives the people right to influence who the electoral college elects as president. But we are not capable of influencing the electoral college to elect whom we believe to be the proper candidate to represent one of the most powerful nations in the world if there is not equal distribution of votes. If the American public had the right to choose, one vote equal to another, our current situation, the current presidency would be completely different.
The purpose of the popular vote is to instruct the electoral college to vote in favor of the president the people want, however electors do not have to necessarily vote the same as the rest of the state. The electoral college is an old, broken system; its abolition could allow the public to elect the president without interference.
“We still need [the electoral college] to maintain our lives as we know them, but some methods must change because a methodology from the 1700s… should not govern a 21st century society,” senior Bryce Hall said.
Without prosecution, the American public feels unheard and like their votes don’t count.
“Nowadays, the popular vote should decide who becomes the president,” junior Zoe Mortensen said. “I feel that the electoral college is an outdated system that was used when not everyone could vote.”
One person should not have the power to override the votes of thousands, to even millions, of American citizens. To some it may seem scary that the uninformed nation is responsible of choosing the president, but this is, in fact, a democracy. After all, the Preamble begins with “We the people”…
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