The Electoral College

The Electoral College is a system of collecting votes where each state has a number of representatives to give a voice to smaller states. A key issue being focused on with many candidates of the Democratic party is the Electoral College. Most of the candidates are working to abolish the Electoral College instead of keeping it the way it is. Reasons against the Electoral College range but it all comes down to “fairness,” but is abolishing the Electoral College really fair? When it comes to the power of the people in this nation the Electoral College is the best way to make everyone have a say.

The popular vote gets described as “two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch.” Although this quote is usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, we are still not sure where it absolutely came from. This is a simple explanation of a larger issue. It means that when there is a majority against something it is easier for a certain group to get messed around. If you take this to a larger group it gets easier to understand, as one of the main examples is rural America. When the Presidential election comes around every four years all the candidates go around the country trying to get them on their side for voting. This is a great way to boost people making sure they vote for the candidate and gives a lot of people information about who they will be voting for. The Electoral College gives the candidates reason to go to both the large and small populated states to give them the best chance of winning. 

The Electoral College also helps diversity in the vote. Other than Texas the states with some of the highest Mexican population also have some of the lowest overall population due to a 2017 study, including New Mexico with about a 50% mexican population while being the fifth least populated state in the US. The popular vote system gives the candidates reason to skip over some of the states with a lower Mexican population with a bigger population of overall people along with a lower population of minorities. The Electoral College makes sure that any candidate would be supported by all parts of the country instead of just the white majority of the country.

At first, some might think the Electoral College is a complicated system, it overall creates a simpler election. There can be a lot of problems when you take in every factor of the popular vote. One problem is voter fraud, and even though voter fraud is a problem even with the Electoral College it creates a bigger issue when every individual vote goes straight to the candidate. An election could easily get thrown off with illegal votes, and when the idea of Russians interfering with our elections could create that has been recently circulating could be an even bigger threat then it is now.

The Electoral College is not something to take control away to the voters but to give them more power. Your vote can easily be covered up by a group of people who live across the country from you. For a country to be run, the whole country must be run together without being controlled by one or two states. The power of the country needs to be in the power of the people. All the people.