Alyssa Reed

Mr. Hawkins
American Government
08 October 2015
Should the EC Be Abolished?
The Electoral College is a system in which the President and Vice President are chosen
indirectly. The Electoral College has many obvious problems and many believe it should be
abolished. It should be abolished for the reason that, the system is quite unfair the states and it
doesnt always reflect the popular vote of the people of the United States. Even though this
system has many flaws, it has seemed to help our country for centuries; it is a much known
system to the people of the nation. Therefore the people of the USA have very different opinions
on if the Electoral College should be abolished.
The Electoral College should be abolished for many reasons, one of these reasons is
the system is quite unreasonable. Its unreasonable in the way that bigger states dont get as
many votes compared to the smaller states. A specific case would be, The Electoral College
violates political equality, and it is not a neutral counting device. It favors some citizens over
others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their votes for president. (Document
D) I concluded from this quote that most people that are in the bigger states are rather ignored
compared to the ones in a smaller state. So in fact, in the election, most of the smaller states have
more power over the larger ones. Another statement of why the Electoral College is unfair for the
states is, Twelve states with very small population totaled 44 votes, and Illinois, a very large
state totaled 20. (Document D) This declares that the twelve small states totaled up more votes
than the big state Wyoming. So the people of the twelve smaller states get a larger say in the

presidential election rather than the one big state, Illinois. The bigger states during the
presidential election are more or less put on the back burner of deciding who should be our next
president. One last example is, We should abolish the Electoral College because it shows just
winning over a few states could determine the election. (Document A) With the Electoral
College you only need 270 electoral votes to basically win in the presidential race. The number
of electoral votes is based on the population of a state, so the candidates could only win over
some of the states with the smallest population, but larger electoral votes to win.
The abolishment of the Electoral College is a very sticky situation. I believe it should
be abolished because it does not always reflect the popular vote. I believe this because,
When having the largest electoral vote, it doesnt matter what your population vote was because
the electoral vote always wins. (Document B) This is because, with the population of each state
comes a number of electoral votes each state receives. The electoral votes are what control the
decision making of the presidency. Another example would be, In the 1824, 1876, 1888, and the
2000 election Adams, Hayes, Harrison, and G.W. Bush all won the electoral vote, but lost the
popular vote. (Document G) Therefore even though this has only happened four times in
history, its still significant. It is significant because if most of the citizens of America choose one
person, and the electoral voters choose differently, the presidential election automatically goes
and favors the electoral votes rather than the popular vote. This violates our political equality as
Americans.
The Electoral College may not be the best way to decide a presidency, but it does
have some superior resources. One resource would be, it is a very well known system, and it
has seemed to be working just fine. An example of this would be, the Electoral college was
designed to promote good government and legislation that forwards the common good of a large,

diverse nation. (Document C) So therefore the nation does not get out of hand when the
presidential elections come around, the Electoral College makes it a bit easier to choose the best
candidate for our country. For the past two centuries the Electoral college has done more good
than bad at deciding who our president might be. Mitch McConnell stated, The Electoral
College has been the linchpin of American political prosperity. He believes that it formed our
political parties, moderated our more extreme elements, and forged the presidential campaigns
that have given direction to our ship of state. So saying that the Electoral college has helped the
nation out in many ways that go unseen, and people only seem to focus on the bad things it has
done. One last example would be, The Electoral College makes sure that the states count in the
presidential election.(Document C) Even though it might be unfair that the smaller states do
receive more of the electoral votes in a way it helps. Other than the presidential elections, many
states do not get any say in what happens around our nation, the president usually turns to the
opinion of the larger more bilious states. So therefore this system has been working in this
country for years and hasnt had a large enough problem for someone to actually abolish it.
In conclusion, The Electoral College is a flawed system, but a system that has seemed to
work for our country for years. It is flawed in the ways that it is unfair in the voting participation
of the states, and it sometimes doesnt match the popular vote. All though this system is very
known and has seemed to work for years.