Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

While the U.S. prides itself on being one of the world’s oldest and fairest democracies, the reality is that the American political system is full of anachronisms that have been excised in other democracies. For example, the antiquated American system of first-past-the-post voting, which prevents third parties from gaining any headway against the Republicans or Democrats, has been rectified with proportional voting systems in countries like Sweden and the Netherlands. Similarly, our system of the electoral college, where the president is determined not by the votes of American citizens, but by appointed electors, has no analogue in any other democracy in the developed world. This is to our detriment, because the electoral college is an outmoded institution that needs to be abolished. Beyond the fact that it deprives the American people of their voting rights, the electoral college has been used to deny the people’s choice for president on several occasions, most recently in the past election, when Donald Trump won …show more content…
In 1992 and 1996, independent candidate Ross Perot was blamed by Republicans for swinging both elections to Bill Clinton, because Perot drew enough support in previously safe red states to allow Clinton to win them. In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was blamed for Bush’s victory, because Nader was perceived as drawing votes from Al Gore in critical states such as Florida (Wand, 802). In the 2016 election, independent candidate Evan McMullin was accused of trying to deny Trump a victory in the electoral college, because McMullin heavily campaigned in strong Republican states like Utah despite the fact that he was incapable of winning the election; he was only on the ballot in a handful of states. These perverse incentives that third-party candidates have to act as spoilers in close races are made possible by the electoral