Essay On Electoral College Reform

The Electoral college system is in need of reform for the following three reasons. First, it creates the potential of having faithless electors. During an election electors may pledge their vote one way that corresponds with the party, and then cast their vote in the opposite way. Second, it gives the candidate an opportunity to win the election without receiving the popular vote. The candidate may have received the popular vote by gaining more states, but looses states that have a large amount of electoral votes. Finally, the focus is on the votes of the states rather than the individuals. Candidates campaigns are strategically placed in certain states where the goal is to win them over, rather than go across the nation to obtain every individuals
vote.
The first reason why the electoral college system is in need of reform is due to faithless electors. Each political party nominates electors from their party to cast votes on the states behalf. The electors are individuals with strong party loyalty, who pledge their vote. However there have been cases where these individuals have turned against the party and voted in a different direction. In enlightened democracy, Ross mentions "that a Gore elector chose to abstain, rather than cast her vote." In this case she decided not to vote to make a statement about issues that were going on in her district. For some time the issue one might face with faithless electors has been overlooked in comparison to other problems the electoral college faces. Furthermore, it is an issue that should be taken seriously. The constitution does not compel electors to stick with their party vote, in which results in individuals casting the vote how they see fit. In history it has not caused continuous threat to the election process, but I fear that since there are no consequences for changing your vote in competitive elections it will highly effect them. In addition, in our current election we may see an arise in faithless electors. It could make a difference in elections where the general public disapproves of both candidates, like we are seeing with both candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
The second reason the electoral college system is in need of reform is that a candidate can become president by not winning the popular vote.
A candidate can gain a large percentage of votes from the population, but can still loose to the opponent who has a large amount of electoral votes according to the states they gained. This creates issue because you can have a candidate, that a high percentage of voters were against still become president. We see this issue with the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. During the election Al Gore received the popular vote, which led to people announcing that Gore had one the election. However, Bush one a majority of the electoral votes (271) which in turn makes his the president. It questions the legitimacy of the election, which results in individuals being upset because the majority does not rule. Ross states "The American presidential election could allow a wrong winner to win the election."As a result this creates a large amount of political unrest, because voters believed that their votes are not important. If a candidate can win just by gaining states with large amounts of electoral votes and is not approved by a majority of the population raises red flags in our "democratic process." The electoral vote outweighs the popular vote hindering the true essence of letting the people's voices be heard. The elected president should have the support of the people. The electoral system was devised to ensure that a president will have the support of the people. Going against this which we see with certain elections harms the system, and should thus be
reformed.
The third and final reason the electoral college system is in need of reform is due to candidates prioritizing states votes rather than individuals. Votes are casted by state delegation rather than by individuals in a direct election. Candidates campaign strategy would benefit in focusing on swing states that could lean either way in the hope of gaining their electoral votes. As a result other states are neglected and not given the same treatment as others who have larger electoral votes. This strategy is seen as a game where you are not going to strongly focus on states where they historically lean to your party. Some argue that it would be a waste of resources, and in doing so candidates are only interested in winning over the states to gain large numbers to win. It is not so much winning over every single person, but strategically planning which states to rally in, in order to beat your opponent. Furthermore, this idea goes against the essence of what the election process truly stands for. This method creates shortcuts, where not all individuals votes are seen as vitally important compared to others in certain states.
In conclusion, the following three reasons show that the electoral college system is need of reform. First, it creates the potential of having faithless electors. As we have seen with previous elections faithless electors are slowly becoming a problem, especially in the mere future. Second, it gives the candidate an opportunity to win the election without receiving the popular vote. The majority of the population may have wanted a certain candidate to become president, however he does not due to not receiving the majority of electoral votes. Finally, the focus is on the votes of the states rather than the individuals. Candidates campaigns are strategically placed in certain states to gain the majority of electoral votes rather than obtain the popular vote, which includes the individuals.