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Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
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Change Something within our Government and Fix it
The federal government is the backbone of the United States. It plays an integral role in
ensuring overall development of the country in terms of growth and development, economic
growth, political aspects, allocations of resources such as finances, and so forth. However, when
something is amiss in the federal government, it affects many significant elements and therefore,
distorting specific ways of doing things. This paper addresses one aspect of the federal
government and ways it can be fixed for a better country, which is, the Electoral College system,
following its legacy.
Aspect that Requires Change and Reasons for Change
Despite its history, the Electoral College remains a flawed voting system. Furthermore,
for many reasons, it will not help stabilize our indirect democracy's governing structure. The
Electoral College firstly allows the candidate who came in second place in the popular vote to
still be declared the winner (Belenky). This is not a far possibility, either. Only four times out of
56 presidential elections have this happened.
Second, the Electoral College warps the presidential election by encouraging parties to
ignore the votes of voters in over forty states and the District of Columbia that they know they
cannot lose or win. In recent years, candidates have not visited these states for anything other
than fundraising or television ads.
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Another way in which the Electoral College system distorts the presidency is by requiring
candidates to cater to the narrow interests of swing states. To win, you need Florida's votes,
which means more contenders will have to appeal to the state's large senior citizen population.
One man, one vote is skewed by the Electoral College. Our indirect democratic
government system will not be helped by this. This is dangerous to our democracy because it
distorts the representation of the people. For each representative in the House of Representatives
from a certain state, that state receives one electoral vote. In addition to the number of senators,
each state is granted an extra pair of electors. As a result, the Electoral College will be skewed
toward the tiny states.
Notably, the Electoral College makes a tie between candidates at 269 votes possible, and
such a tie has been plausible in almost all elections. This happened in the year 1800, when
popular voting for president was not yet used in several states (Feerick). With the current
presidential election system, it is extremely unlikely that a third party will be victorious.
Indirectly, this threatens democratic government itself. Even though minor parties have a very
low chance of winning the presidency, their presence in even a handful of states can swing the
election in their favor.
The Electoral College favors the ruling party, while the opposition has slim to no chance
of altering the system without a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds
supermajority in Congress. It also requires support from a majority of states. Because of this,
minority groups are effectively shut out. There are certain benefits to using the traditional
electoral method as well. There is little likelihood of a runoff or a lengthy national recount in the
Electoral College. Consider what would have happened if the Electoral College had not been
established by 1960 (Feerick). Despite all of these complaints, Americans insist that their
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democracy is functioning effectively. But there are some who argue that American democracy is
flourishing. There should be no proposals for bipartisan support since the public has delivered
inconsistent messages about how our political system should reform.
How to Change It (Fix It)
No constitutional amendments are required to do away with the Electoral College. We
can implement a system of universal suffrage that does not compromise democratic principles.
This is due to the fact that the candidate who is predicted to come in last in a popular vote may
instead end up with a majority of the vote. More criticism has been leveled as a result of this in
recent years. The popular vote may have given Clinton the election, but the Electoral College
decided otherwise (Edwards III). We need to get this fixed. Having each person cast a single vote
is the ideal system. The Electoral College is full of scoundrels. Votes must be given for the
candidate to whom an elector has declared allegiance. There have been instances where voters
did not do so. By law, they must base their decision on how the state as a whole voted.
The allocation of electoral votes is another area where change is possible. Each state
receives two votes in the Electoral College, while the remaining votes are distributed according
to each state's population. Each state should have an equal number of votes. Citizens will not
have to worry about their democracy being undermined if this happens. The option for dividing
the Electoral College votes proportionally to the popular vote proposed by Senator Henry Lodge
(R-Massachusetts) and Representative Ed Gossett (R-Texas) can also be adopted (Edwards III).
Several other initiatives and reforms have been proposed, all of which can be implemented to
improve the system as a whole.
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In its current form, the Electoral College threatens to undermine our democracy every
time it votes. While eliminating the institution altogether may seem appealing, a constitutional
amendment allowing for popular election of the president and vice president has an extremely
low likelihood of being approved by the United States Congress and three-quarters of the states
(Edwards III). Despite the difficulty, we must find a way forward that has more widespread
support and addresses the most serious problems with the Electoral College (Belenky). There's
one strategy that might win over supporters of both major parties.
There is an absolute and immediate need for reform. After this year of unprecedented
disruption, our country is likely just one close election away from total collapse. It is
unprecedented for a sitting president and his allies to lobby state legislatures to appoint electors
who did not win their respective states' popular votes. If an election dispute drags on for a long
enough period of time, states are within their legal rights to do so (Belenky). Because of the
relatively large margins of victory in most states, there were no "faithless legislatures" this year.
In the future, we won't have quite as much good luck.
Benefits of this Change
This change will help the country as a whole by giving even the smallest of states a voice
in national politics. In this way, the candidates will be less likely to spend the majority of their
time campaigning in densely populated areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York
(Feerick). In many cases, it will also provide a tidy and generally acknowledged conclusion to
the election. As a result, national unity is strengthened, and there is a smooth transition of power
between presidents. It will lessen the burden of campaigning for candidates and help parties
thrive.
Conclusion
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In conclusion, the Electoral College has never been widely accepted in the United States.
Votes are given different weights in the system depending on the location of the voter. It
promotes campaigns to concentrate on a small number of states with swings and presidential
candidates to manipulate public policy in their favor. The Electoral College has flipped the
presidency five times, each time awarding it to the candidate who came in second in the popular
vote. The Electoral College system weakens our fundamental democratic values in these
significant ways.
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References
Belenky, Alexander S., and Alexander S. Belenky. "The Initial Design of the Electoral College:
Basic Ideas, Logical Mistakes, and Overlooked Problems." Who Will Be the Next
President? A Guide to the US Presidential Election System (2016): 118.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-44696-7_1
Edwards III, George C. Why the Electoral College is bad for America. Yale University Press,
2019.https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300243888/why-the-electoral-college-is-badfor-america
Feerick, John D. "The Electoral College: Time for a Change?." Fordham L. Rev. 90 (2021): 395.
https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/flr90&div=17&id=&page