The Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. It was created for two reasons. The first was to create a buffer between state populations and the selection of a President the second reason was to give extra power to smaller states. The Electoral College is a problem because it creates the possibility for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote, it belies the one-person, one-vote principle because electoral votes are not distributed among the states based on population Also, third parties have the potential to change the outcome of the election. The possibility of a candidate winning the electoral vote when he did not win the popular is likely, This occurrence has happened at least four times out of the 57 total presidential elections.
This most recently happened in 2000 when George Bush narrowly lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote against Al Gore with 271 votes This creates a problem because it creates the feeling that the citizens vote does not really count. The Electoral College is a problem because the one-person, one-vote principle is belied. Electoral votes are not distributed among the states based on population Each state gets one electoral vote for each member of its delegation to the House of Representatives and one vote for each Senator, which in every state, is two. This causes a problem because no matter what a state’s population is, it will always get the two “bonus“ votes from the Senators, thus causing significant overrepresentation of the smaller states. Lastly, third parties are capable of changing the outcome of the whole election. There have been many times under which a small third party can tip a key state which is able to change the course of the election. The last time this shenanigan happened was in 2000 when Ralph Nader, the Green Party nominee, finished third in the popular vote and received 16 percent in Florida.
Those votes most likely shifted the state from Democratic Al Gore to Republican George W Bush, and all of this changed the national election. Everything that was explained is reasons why the Electoral College system should not be used anymore and it mainly has to do with how the states are represented, the one-person, one-vote principle, and third parties It forms a controversial topic because it is misleading many citizens due to their belief that they are voting directly for a candidate when, in reality, they are nott. The Electoral College creates an unfair advantage for a certain candidate based on how the votes must be divided while hurting another candidate.
