Do We Need to Change America's Present Electoral System?

The Electoral College makes America’s electoral process different from everyone else in the world. After every ballot in the country has been counted, a group of electors votes all over again to decide who will be president (this group is determined by the number of people in the House Of Representatives). Many people view this process as the ‘actual’ election, and it can really be a source of controversy if an election race turns out to be a close one, as in the years 1800, 1824, 1876. During the 20th century, we had very close election races too, like the Kennedy-Nixon race, and the Bush-Gore election. The Electoral College has been functional since America became a nation. However, it seems as though the country needs to make some amendments regarding the electoral system.

With America’s present electoral system, it is possible for the popular vote to become useless. For example, in 1824, Andrew Jackson got the most popular votes but still lost. In 1888, Grover Cleveland won more votes, but Harrison was elected as president (Jantzen and others, 1989, 82). Under this system, we can see that the true element of democracy in every election is being bypassed. Why let everybody vote and yet only a small group of electors actually decide the outcome of the election?

The Electoral College might have been appropriate during the time of the Founding Fathers, but it doesn’t look applicable in our time because our population is getting bigger and more people are voting. We cannot afford to let their votes and their voices sink and not be heard just because of a formal technicality in the electoral process. Holding presidential primaries, launching campaigns, and doing the actual elections cost millions of dollars. This huge amount of money would be a big waste if the popular voice of the crowd is not heard, and instead, the election becomes concentrated only on states which have more number of electoral votes to be won. In my opinion, this is quite unfair to the people who voted, and to the candidate who won the popular vote. Under these arguments, my view is that we should amend the electoral process or totally abolish the Electoral College.