Electoral College Essay Sample

First, what is the electoral college? Well, as stated in the US constitution, the American president is not elected directly by the people; but by the people's elector. Each elector gets one vote. Every state gets two electoral votes, no matter the size, along with its number of House members. Meaning that a state such as California has 55 votes, while a state such as Alaska has three. Adding every state up, there are a total of 538 electoral votes. The candidate who gets 270 or more votes becomes the president. So then, what are the flaws with this system?

One reason it’s flawed is that it lets candidates with the minority of votes win. In a true democracy, it would make sense that the winner of the popular vote would win the election. Importantly and unfortunately, the electoral college can prevent that. The winner of the popular vote has lost the election 5 separate times. One example of this happening is the 2016 election. In 2016, candidate Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the election. This happened because the states that candidate Clinton won did not have the proper number of electoral votes compared to their population. On the other hand, if we had abolished the electoral college and used the popular vote instead, Clinton would have won the election.

The idea of not receiving enough votes compared to the state population leads me to my next point, smaller states are clearly over represented by the electoral college. While it might seem like a good thing that small states get a voice, it isn’t an accurate representation of how people vote. The smaller states are a significant reason each state gets a minimum of two electoral votes. But because of this, the population of smaller states is overstated. This means that votes in small states count for more than votes in large states. People in states like Alaska and Montana get more powerful votes than they should. Furthermore, people in states with high populations like California are getting less powerful votes than they should. Undoubtedly, this distribution of power in the electoral college is undemocratic.

One final reason the electoral college needs to be abolished is the idea of faithless electors. In some states, electors in the electoral college aren’t required to vote for the candidate that won their states popular vote. There are 17 states with no laws against faithless electors. In the 2016 election alone, there were anywhere from 7 to 10 faithless electors. It should be noted that faithless electors have never swayed an election. Even so, it is just frightening they can. 

In conclusion, the electoral college is undemocratic and extremely flawed. It allows a few to win. It gives more power to some states than others. In addition to that, there are many instances of electors not casting their vote for the candidate who won the popular vote. Moreover, the electoral college prevents our democracy from operating how it should. We need to abolish the electoral college.