The Electoral College

The United States Electoral College has a 200 year mixed history of both positive and negative critics. It is made up of 538 state electors that officially decide the outcome of the President & Vice President positions. In class we had a group debate about this topic; the pros vs. the cons, & both sides had very good points.

The Electoral College setup does have many good points to it (this is not an exhaustive list); it contributes to the cohesiveness of the country, makes minority interests prominent & encourages a two-party system which helps maintain political stability. Essentially, the College makes electing the President an easier process. There are no national recounts (usually) because of it, it helps equal out extremely close population votes in states, puts minority issues to the forefront, and with the two-party system decisions can be easily made without including multiple party issues into the mix.

Negatively, it is seen as undemocratic.The United States is a standard of democracy for the rest of the world, so it's interesting that we allow our President to be elected with potentially less than half of the popular vote in his favor. Basically, he/she can win merely 13 (larger) states votes & still be elected as President; this ignores over half the country! This means it can ignore the will of the people and legislatures can still get their way. This can be seen during the 2000 election between Bush & Gore. The people wanted Gore but the College voted for Bush & that's who became out President. Also, due to the College many people thing their vote will count less, particularly in larger states, so it stops the flow of voter turnout. Again, an undemocratic trend.

I'm not saying one way is better than the other, but I do think the system is broken in some sense. We need to revamp the electoral system in order to make it more fair and consistent with the people's will. Everyone may be idiots, so perhaps they shouldn't decide the President, but then maybe that means our education system is failing us which is an entirely different problem. Perhaps one the President should solve...?