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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The Electoral College has been around for many years and has proven to be a useful tool in voting for a president. However, as useful as it is, we must ask if it is still the most optimal option when voting for president now that we have electronic communication and can spread information like wildfire. The Electoral College is flawed and should be changed.

The smallest number of electoral votes that a state can have is 3 (2 for senate and 1 for HOR), however, since all states must have at least 3 votes, this extracts some of the voting power from the larger states (Document A). Furthermore, this system allows for candidates to focus their efforts on certain parts of the country because in order to win, only 12 out of 50 states must vote …show more content…

This is proven through the elections of 1980 and 1992 when the popular vote (voice of the people) did not match with the Electoral College votes (Document B). This means that more of the people voted for one candidate, but that candidate did not win because another candidate received more Electoral College votes. Furthermore, the electors in the electoral college are not even required to vote with their state, which means that theoretically, we could have all of the people vote for one candidate, but if the electors don’t vote for him/her, then that candidate will not win. Even with all of the unfairness to the people, the electoral college is not fair to any candidate who does not choose to side with one of the two major parties (Document E). Seeing that all the electors have identified with one of the two major parties, most independent or other party candidate do not even stand a chance. Third of all, many third-party candidates do not receive any Electoral College votes at all, even though they do receive some votes from the people (Document B & G). This furthers the argument that anyone who does not side with one of the two major parties does not stand a fair chance in the …show more content…

For example, Wyoming has around 550,000 people and California has 38 million. Despite that, Wyoming has one vote for 183,333 and California has one vote for 690,909 people. Therefore, the people of California have less voting power than those in Wyoming simply because Wyoming is less populous. Another problem with the Electoral College is in the event that no candidate has received 270 electoral votes, then the vote goes to Congress where each state has only one vote, no matter the population. This means that the 38 million people in California are represented by the same number of votes as the 500,000 people of Wyoming (Document F). Lastly, the Electoral College has proven to be flawed before in the 1824 election when Adams won over Jackson even though Jackson had 15 more Electoral votes than Adams (Document G). Having a mistake as big as choosing the incorrect person for president is unacceptable and inexcusable. Also, this shows that there can and will be flaws with the Electoral College whether or not we want there to

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