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Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

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If America has been on the basis of “we the people” from when the preamble was written in the Constitution, how has it become just to use a political system that denies citizens their right to a vote that actually matters? This system is the electoral college. It is a method of indirect popular election of the President of the United States. That word “indirect” is a prime notion of why the electoral college has been the subject of persistent criticism and frequent proposals for reform. It has been seen in great times when the electoral college made an unjust decision in electing the president when their decision diverged from the nation's popular vote. Direct popular election could be a clear-cut answer to it all. The nation votes, their votes …show more content…

Essentially, the small states feared that they would be overridden by the power of larger states. Overtime, the electoral college system has done its job 54 out of 59 times in electing the president in a fair voting system. However, those five times when the system did not do its job are the reasons why “more than 700 constitutional amendments have been proposed to modify or abolish the Electoral College” (textbook, pg. 210). This would make it subject to more attempted reforms than any other reforms in history. So why has it not been done yet? Back in 1969 there was a case to abolish the electoral college system which won the support of the House but was blocked by a Senate filibuster led by southern senators who opposed civil rights legislation (textbook, pg. 210). A definition for the term “filibuster” can be described as someone engaging in unauthorized warfare against a foreign country or as the political system likes to put it: an action designed to prolong debate and delay. Either way, this should not be a part of American democracy and affect the way American citizens get to have their right to a fair, direct …show more content…

211). If the issue of reforming or abolishing the electoral college is one that opposes the United States Constitution, then we have to look at how many times that has been amended. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times over the course of history for better or for worse. This amendment of the electoral college could play a vital role in the future of American democracy. If the electoral college was abolished and direct popular vote was put into place it would eliminate the influence of “unconstitutional” voting results. Unconstitutional means going against what the Constitution says. The Constitution preaches on how America is free and for the people, but the electoral college strays away from that point. If the citizens’ votes are not going directly to the candidate they voted for in the race, what makes it easy to say that they will keep voting. Significantly, direct popular voting would be a simple, yet effective way to reform and radicalize the electoral voting system that we have

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