Representation In The Electoral College

Politics can be a sensitive topic to talk about so we do not always know how others may feel about it or what stances they take. In an effort to understand how people feel about the current U.S. democracy, 10 students were interviewed on this topic. Out of the 10, 5 were male and 5 were female. The males interviewed were: David, Gustavo, Jack, Pierce, and Anthony. The females interviewed were: Gabi, Alex, Jennifer, Abey, and Alma. The interviews showed a clear pattern of thought throughout the group. Many of the students did not agree with how the structure of the United State’s democracy works, but the majority agreed with the outcomes of its processes. They believed that even though it still had plenty of room for improvement, it was …show more content…
They felt that it did not completely represent the overall views of the population. One of the students- Gustavo- even went as far as saying that “the Electoral College is a joke since there’s no given guarantee that the Electoral College will vote the same way as the general population”. Six brought up the 2016 election as an example of misrepresentation in the Electoral College. The overall consensus was that the popular vote from the election had been ignored since Hillary Clinton had won almost three million more votes than her opponent, current president, Donald Trump. They argued that following the popular vote would achieve a much more accurate representation of the overall population. However, six students still agreed with the final outcomes of these processes. They believed that the process still gave citizens a voice in their government which “isn’t seen in most countries in the world”(Abey). Also, they believed the Electoral College, while not completely representing the population, was still a good form of democracy. Alberto stated, “While Clinton may have lost even though she won the popular vote, we can’t forget about those who had chosen different candidates. It may not have been the outcome that the majority voted for, but a large portion of people still voted for Trump and we can’t ignore that”. They claimed that …show more content…
The topic of gerrymandering was frequently mentioned by four of the students (Mina, Gabi, Abey, and Alberto). They believed that gerrymandering had negatively affected our process of voting by misrepresenting the citizens voting in a gerrymandered district. “It’s not the voters choosing the representatives, it’s the representatives choosing the voters”, claimed Mina. This group of four gave the most passionate responses out of all the interviews. In fact, their attitudes suddenly became a lot more vocal compared to the other questions they had been asked. All four agreed that since gerrymandering is so successful, it is inevitable for major political parties in the United States to use it. The four preferred to have the process of gerrymandering be fairer, but they were ok with it with it under 2 conditions. The first was for the district lines “to be drawn in a more fair way” (Alberto). In a surprise twist, the second was if the process to gave a slight boost to the party that they most affiliated with. When asked why they thought this, the overall response was “If they’re doing it, then we should be able to do it as well”. It seemed that all four students were not ok with gerrymandering that negatively affected their party but they agreed with the outcomes of the elections that produced winners from their parties, whether it was on the left or right side of the political