Electoral College Persuassive Essay Essay, Research Paper

~Electoral College~

In the United States we are all guaranteed one vote per person. Everyone has an equal voice in electing the people that serve in the government. Every four years during the month of November citizens of America go to the polls to vote for a president and vice-president of the United States. Am I right? Not really. They actually vote for electors that then vote for our president. It makes me wonder, “Are we a democracy?” Having the Electoral College defeats its purpose. I oppose the electoral college for these three reasons, in election 2000 the president that lost the popular vote actually won, everyone’s vote doesn’t really count, plus the electoral college has disrupted elections fifteen times!

First of all I would like to bring to your attention that many votes don’t even get counted if you call the United States a democracy. The way the whole Electoral College thing works is that each state is allowed a certain number of “electors” (the state’s number of Representatives plus its Senators), who then vote for the president. The elector’s vote based on the state’s popular vote. After the state verifies the votes, the candidate that receives the most votes get all of that state’s elector’s votes. Because the state’s constitution awards electoral votes that way, the innumerable individual votes become meaningless. Does that sound fair to you? It doesn’t to me.

Secondly, do you agree with election 2000? I surely don’t, I mean the wrong president won the election. Gore received 500,000 more votes than Bush. But who won the election, Bush. All because of a policy called the Electoral College. It is a very controversial issue. I know that many people are unhappy about this election. I thought we were a democracy! And we choose are president, not electors.

Finally, these consequences go far beyond simple “fairness” issues. Too many times in American history the Electoral College has single-handedly defeated the purpose of democracy in our country. Since the first presidential election, there have been more than a dozen instances in which somebody has been elected president without a majority of the votes. The following are examples from how the electoral college has disrupted an election: Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, and now George Bush.

I think the best way to change this 200-year-old system is to start off slow. Test out a new system in a smaller election and then, eventually, it will catch on. And it will change the national policy. We are a democracy in the United States, right? That’s why I oppose the electoral college, because everyone’s vote doesn’t count, the wrong president won in election 2000 if you call the United States a democracy, and the electoral college has disrupted outcomes in more than a dozen elections.