The Electoral College: Misleading, Inaccurate, and Undemocratic Electing a president is one of the most important duties of an American citizen. The president embodies the morals and beliefs of the people, and he or she is responsible for many of the elements that hold this country together. Therefore, the system by which the president is elected should be efficient, accurate, and most importantly, democratic. However, the current Electoral College system is anything but that. It was established in the constitution in 1789, and was created as a compromise between election by vote of congress and popular vote of citizens. Out of the 538 electors assigned to states across the country, 270 of their votes are needed for a presidential candidate …show more content…
Before voting even takes place, this system distorts presidential candidate's campaigns, corrupting the rest of the election. This is due to the attention they pay to “swing states”; defined as “a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning” (“The Definition of Swing State”). Candidates will often focus their campaign efforts towards these states because they can be the key to victory. In fact. “Swing states are usually the only ones who ever see the candidates campaigning for election” because of the advantages associated with them. Furthermore, the Electoral College system has created divisiveness between states by the use of the red-state blue-state system. These terms have become the basis for discrimination and prejudice over the course of American history. They have also “imposed the false notion that political ideology is entirely defined by geography” (Rich, Alex K., Heather Newton.). Simply put, red and blue state labels assign false identities to the many Democrats in red states, Republicans in blue states, and independent voters everywhere. In addition, these terms give candidates the “mistaken impression that an entire state supports them simply because they won the plurality in that state” (Rich, Alex K., Heather Newton.). This can also alter their campaign efforts, as well as create false information about the …show more content…
This is due to the violation of the one-vote one-person rule. The system severely over-represents rural states because of the way Electoral votes are assigned. For example, “Wyoming, the least populous state, has one representative for every 510,000 inhabitants, while Montana has one representative per 935,000. Thus, a single vote in Wyoming is worth almost twice as much as a vote in Montana’ (Rich, Alex K., Heather Newton.). Obviously, this presents a serious problem because it can greatly distort the actual vote of the people. Therefore, people in states with more electoral votes have more power, and a greater impact overall. In addition, the Electoral college system creates the possibility of electing a minority president. This has not been a rare occurrence in the past. In fact, there are multiple ways a minority president could be elected. The most common is if nation is so divided, three or more candidates split the electoral votes and no one receives the majority. This happened in the year 1824, fairly early in the Electoral College’s history. In that election, John Quincy Adams was elected President by the House of Representatives. In this case, the will of the people was not upheld, and the decision was made for them, whether they liked it or not. This choice was therefore undemocratic, and it may have