The Electoral College should be abolished. It must be abolished. However difficult it would be because constitutional amendments aren’t easy, it must be done. The Electoral College is undemocratic and on top of that, it is an outdated system. It is a racist and sexist institution that doesn’t serve the best interests of the people anymore.
Our system of governance, our system of elections, while worshipped because supposedly we’re the greatest nation on earth (we’re not), are outdated. They were designed for their times of 200+ years ago. Only white property owners could vote. Women couldn’t vote, nor could blacks. Sure, amendments have been added to the constitution to allow them to vote, but the Electoral College, designed to keep them out, has been left in place and continues to suppress their voices.
I could care less about Hillary Clinton, but she’s on track to win the popular vote by around two million while losing the EC. The EC makes it so only a few swing states matter and everyone else can be forgotten. Hillary lost Wisconsin and Michigan, barely, while crushing in California, which has more people than Wisconsin and Michigan combined. But those people’s votes don’t matter. She barely loses Florida and North Carolina, but crushes New York and yet the voters in New York don’t matter. She hangs tight in Texas, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s winner take all in our country, which, again, isn’t democratic. Washington and Oregon don’t matter. Due to the EC and winner take all system, Alabama goes Red every time, meaning all the black voters don’t matter. Same thing with Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina. All the people there voting for Hillary, or just any Democrat in any election, don’t matter.
However, because of the EC, Republican voters in California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, New York, Maryland, New Mexico and other states don’t matter either. Our elections aren’t about the will of the people.
Now, the EC is 538 electors. 435 for the House of Reps, 100 for the Senate, and 3 for Washington D.C. Every state gets two senators, meaning little populated North Dakota has the same power as California. That’s crazy. But even if the electoral college was just 438, Trump still wins while losing the popular vote, because he still wins the same states since they are all winner take all. If you did the electoral college by House of Rep districts, Trump still wins, while losing the popular vote. You could even do proportional representation with the House of Reps and Trump probably still wins.
The only solution is the obvious one, which is the president should be decided via popular vote. This way, every vote in every state truly matters. Not only is that democracy, one vote for one person, but it’d also likely help to limit the gridlock in congress. Mainly, if elections were decided via popular vote, Republican candidates would have to campaign in California and Washington and New York and big metropolitan areas, which would force them to either moderate their views, come to the center or even accept some liberal viewpoints, or go extinct as a party. It’d also force Democratic candidates though to campaign in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, South Carolina and other states. The Democratic Party wouldn’t necessarily move to the right, they shouldn’t, they’ve gone far enough right already, but they’d have to actually build up the party’s infrastructure in those states. I mean, in Texas alone, if you’re trying to win the popular vote, you’d campaign in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Lubbock and some other metropolitan areas, to turn out as many liberals there as you can.
Another thing is, doing it via the popular vote, instead of voting being done state by state, you’d have one national set of voting laws and standards. So you’d have one national law for early voting. You wouldn’t have voter ID laws that discriminate minorities and poor people. You’d also have one national law for mail in votes, which I would do, because it’s been shown to increase voter turnout. I would also have one national ranked choice voting law, so third parties can actually be part of the election without being smeared as spoilers. Lastly, make voting day a national holiday.
So yea, we need to abolish the EC and make the Presidential election decided by the national popular vote. It’s time to have an electoral system that fits with modern times.
adamkendall2 