The Electoral College: does it help or hurt?
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – There are many issues that face society today, but one is whether or not to abolish the Electoral College; something that makes our democracy, democratic. Today, some people feel that with the college in effect, it renders their vote use pointless. The Electoral College is so essential in today’s democratically ambiguous society we have today, so each opinion can be correctly represented in the electoral process. Which is why I thought this was one critical issue that faces society today, because this truly would affect us if it ends up being abolished in the future.
One issue that some may see with the Electoral College, is that they may feel that their vote is isn’t counted in the current system. The college is set up to prevent majority tyranny from deciding the election, which is what the founding fathers wanted to prevent. They of course wanted the people to choose whom should govern them and give them the power to do as much, but they didn’t want the majority deciding what the minority wants in any political process. There are many understandable reasons to why the abolishment of the college. For one, it would help many feel that their vote is actually counted (when it still is in the Electoral College); for in the case of the 2016 presidential election, where Clinton won the popular vote but not the college. So, in the sense that majority tyranny would take over in the case that the college is repealed, it would also take away an exponential amount of representation of the smaller states in elections.
The abolishment of the college would let the big states (California, New York, etc.) decide the election, since those states contain a big percentage of the total US population. Some situations may arise where a person in a state votes Democrat and the college (with the states overall votes) goes to the Republican candidate; making the voter want the college be repealed because the state did not go to their party. But in that case, the college system still worked. So the Electoral College does have its pros and obviously its cons, but it is palpably needed in a democracy.