The Electoral College Needs to Go

Ellie-Gabe Grodzki

Since the establishment of the Constitution, Americans have determined the winner of the US presidential election by weighing the states’ votes as a whole. Many people may find this is strange as the vote is determined not by the number of people that voted for that candidate, but rather, by how well-received that candidate was in a state. Recent history reveals that the electoral college is not the best way to call an election. The reason is, that the electoral college leans in favor of the Republican party.

As brookings.edu points out, the electoral college has been crowning candidates who haven’t won the popular vote more and more frequently. In these instances, the President was a Republican while their more popular opponent was a Democrat. What this means is, despite being the less favorable runner, Republican candidates have been sweeping elections. Think of it like this: the US has had 12 years worth of legislature that was stolen from the citizens who didn’t want that President. A more recent article by vox.com underscores how large this issue is, saying, “Indeed, while Biden won a commanding victory in the national popular vote — his 4.5 percentage point victory is the second-largest margin in a 21st-century presidential contest — Biden barely eked out a victory in the Electoral College”. 

What we're seeing is that the electoral college is becoming less effective in choosing a popular candidate. Therefore, it'd be a logical step to take to get rid of the electoral college as it has outlived its usefulness. Rather than depending on the power of the states, an alternative would be to simply count on the popular vote. That way, citizens would have a direct way to vote a president into office, as well as a more practical approach to voting.

References

[1] www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/12/09/how-to-get-rid-of-the-electoral-college/.

[2] www.vox.com/2021/1/11/22224700/electoral-college-joe-biden-donald-trump-bias-four-points-one-chart.