The right to elect government officials is one of the most fundamental rights an American Citizen is entitled to. It is also one of the most basic qualities of a democracy. Yet, few understand how our modern voting process works when it comes to electing our highest official. Thomas Jefferson once said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never can be” (qtd. Ourrepubliconline). The Electoral College is an outdated system that no longer serves its original purpose, due to the evolution of our modern political system. In the early years of our great nation, our founding fathers were scrambling to put into effect a system by which we elect the leader of our nation. The Virginia Plan was used as the starting
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So why was the Electoral College not thrown out once people decided that the electors should not be independent voters? One explanation lies in small states. The Electoral College system favors small states in a very unfair way. Small states argue that without the Electoral College, large states would have more pull in the presidential election. While certainly in a popular vote system more votes would be generated from more populous areas, but why should those areas have less meaning just because more people live there? The Electoral College doesn’t make it fair game. Rather, the Electoral College just shifts the balance of power in the small states favor. This is often hard for the average person to understand. However, we can use simple math to prove that small states have an unfair advantage. Let’s take California for example. California receives 55 electoral votes, the most out of any state. Now let’s look at Wyoming, who receives 3 electoral votes. This must mean that California has the advantage right? Actually, Wyoming is the one with the advantage. According to the 2010 census, Wyoming’s population is 584,153. Now let’s take Wyoming’s population and divide it by the number of electors they are entitled to (3). Assuming we round to the nearest thousand, the answer is 195,000. This means Wyoming receives
So why was the Electoral College not thrown out once people decided that the electors should not be independent voters? One explanation lies in small states. The Electoral College system favors small states in a very unfair way. Small states argue that without the Electoral College, large states would have more pull in the presidential election. While certainly in a popular vote system more votes would be generated from more populous areas, but why should those areas have less meaning just because more people live there? The Electoral College doesn’t make it fair game. Rather, the Electoral College just shifts the balance of power in the small states favor. This is often hard for the average person to understand. However, we can use simple math to prove that small states have an unfair advantage. Let’s take California for example. California receives 55 electoral votes, the most out of any state. Now let’s look at Wyoming, who receives 3 electoral votes. This must mean that California has the advantage right? Actually, Wyoming is the one with the advantage. According to the 2010 census, Wyoming’s population is 584,153. Now let’s take Wyoming’s population and divide it by the number of electors they are entitled to (3). Assuming we round to the nearest thousand, the answer is 195,000. This means Wyoming receives