The Electoral College has been the system for determining who becomes the U.S. president since 1787. It was created as a compromise to allow the people to have a say in who should be the president of the United States, but stopping short of giving the people complete control over who becomes the president. It is in fact very odd that the United States has an Electoral College that determines who the next president will be. When people think about the United States, they think of the greatest “democracy” prioritizing the people and their voice. The Electoral College works by each state receiving 3 electoral votes with additional votes awarded based on the state population. This was yet another compromise to smaller, more sparsely populated states. The Electoral College was also created to protect smaller states and ensure that they also have fair representation in the electoral process despite being a smaller population.
I believe that we should abolish the Electoral College because the United States and its people have transformed a lot since 1787. We no longer need the protection provided by the Electoral College. The majority of American citizens are in fact informed with current politics because of the internet, smart phones, cable, social media, and easy-to-access news articles. Also, in spite of being the goal to give smaller states a more fair representation, it has really not been successful. In the past few presidential elections, the election is decided by a few “swing” states, not the smaller states. I think that instead of the Electoral College, elections should be decided based solely on the popular vote like many other countries. It is absurd that a candidate could win the popular vote and have the majority of people support that candidate, but lose the election. It is finally time to allow the people to have the final say in who should be our president, not the Electoral College.
