Every Vote "Counts”
In the United States, a nation that prides itself on equality, the Electoral College seems like a paradox. The Electoral College is a system used to elect the President. It allocates electoral votes to each state based on its representation in Congress. Although at first glance it seems fair, it allows for disproportionate representation, the neglect of the population, and the disregard of public opinion. It is simply outdated. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the time has come to question its relevance and amend the inherent flaws in our electoral system.
Most fail to realize that the United States is not a true democracy; it is defined as a representative democracy. While politicians use inspiring rhetoric to create the illusion of control, average citizens have limited power. The Electoral College is one of the factors that inhibits democracy. The United States is not exactly a democracy -- but it should be.
One of the most recurring misconceptions surrounding the creation of the Electoral College is that it was meant to help small states directly. There is truth to this claim, in the fact that smaller states do get more power in the Electoral College, but that was not the primary motive of the decision. The United States is a country built on compromises, and this was no exception. During the Federal Convention of 1787, Former President James Madison emphasized that “states were divided into different interests not by their difference of size, but by other circumstances… principally from their having or not having slaves.” This exemplifies that the Electoral College was not instituted purely to help smaller states; it actually had to do with slave states and free states. The disproportionate representation given to small states today was not the principal intention of the system.
Today, it is clear that the Electoral College gives certain areas unequal representation or power in an election. In a state with a smaller population, such as Delaware, compared to a state with a much larger population like California, individuals' power in the Electoral College is not proportional. The ratio of voters to electors is smaller in a state like Delaware, meaning the vote of a person who lives in a smaller state is worth about three times more than a vote in California. This naturally does not fit the definition of equality, which is being the same in quantity, size, degree, or value. In a system where power is vested in the people, an individual in one state should be equal to one in another.
The Electoral College also allows candidates to dismiss the majority of the population. In the 2016 election, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton visited Florida over thirty times. She never went to California. That is because Florida has historically been on both ends of the spectrum; the candidates invest more of their resources in winning over these states, known as swing states. Because of this system, overall, only a handful of states matters in the end, allowing the rest of the population to be overlooked. The Electoral College gives swing states disproportionate focus. This further proves that not all citizens of the nation carry an equal amount of weight. We live in a country where residents of Florida naturally matter more than residents of California in an election. Equality is one of the principal ideals of our nation. How can an unequal system be the prime deciding factor for the head of state in a pridefully equal country?
In some cases, even the winner of the popular vote can lose the election due to the system of the Electoral College. The most recent example of this occurred in 2016, when Hilary Clinton won the popular vote, but failed to meet the quota of 270 electoral votes before her opposing candidate, Donald Trump. That is yet another major flaw in this system. It demonstrates that an individual can be favored by the majority of the population and still lose the election. Democracy is a governing system that depends on the will of the population. It cannot blatantly ignore the majority. It only makes sense when one realizes that the Electoral College is not, and has never been, a fair system based on the notion of equality.
In the United States, most votes do not count. Would the outcome change even slightly if you did not vote in 2024? California is overwhelmingly democratic, making up nearly fifty percent of the state. Republicans have about half that, at nearly twenty-four percent. If every single person at Athenian could vote, and chose not to, it would have no effect. You simply do not matter. Only a handful do. In a government where we are at the mercy of those we elect, the time for change is long overdue. We must aim to reform our policies, and create a system that aligns with the ideals of democracy and equality upon which the United States was founded.
