In this current system, we live in we used a tactic that is well known in our country called Electoral College, which has been around for many decades. The Electoral College is a system that is used to help determine who is going to become our new President and Vice President of our country during the major election. The candidate who elects our Presidents is the House of Representative and Senate. Electoral College goes back to the late 1700s where it was first created. Which the founding fathers created for the sole purpose of creating a system where the most educated or qualified Americans should be able to vote and decided for the whole population on whom is well suited in becoming the new leader of their country. This means if the majority of the population voted for a certain President and the majority of the Electoral College voted for another President the Electoral will always win. Electoral College plays a huge role in how Presidential cardiants run their campaign. Parties focus more on getting the most electoral votes because if they win more electors votes they do not have to focus more on getting the popular vote. Because they know these unrighteous tactics is the way to win the election. They also focus more on the larger states than the smaller ones because they benefit more from the events held in larger states.
Most success in winning the election comes from bigger states so they don’t waste their time on smaller states. Swing states or also known as battleground states is another key tactic in winning the election because they have a huge portion of electoral voters that does not favor one political party. There are over a dozen swing states and is described as states that could side with a Democratic or Republican presidential candidate. On the other hand, the National Popular Vote movement is here to stop this unethical ideology that is going on in our government. Many Americans are upset about how the elections are being controlled through the past 5 elections where the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes through each state still ends up losing. They want to see a change in the government where the “winner takes all.” Changing the Electoral College system to where voters in all 50 states are able to have to say on who they decide to be their President is more logical. The National Popular vote movement plans on doing that by states have the decision to award their electoral votes as one and vote for the majority vote. This will help change the unfairness that the government use as a tactic to keep who they want as a leader in power.
In a Presidential Election, American citizens think they are actually voting for president candidates of their choosing but in reality, they are voting for electors known as Electoral College. In a typical U.S. elections people who are running for certain positions in the government are elected directly by popular vote from citizens, but for a President or Vice President, it is different because they are not directly elected by the American citizens. And I feel as if that has to change, no group of people should have that much power to decide for the entire population of our country. This method feels as if we do not have any say when it comes to deciding on how we want our society to be run. When the government tell us that every vote counts they make it seem as if we are directly voting for the candidate of our choosing but in actuality, our individual votes hold different amounts of power based on where we are located and in some cases it is worth nothing at all. For example, a state like California that has roughly has over 39 million citizens and 55 electoral votes that represent 725 thousand voters and then having a state like Wyoming that has about 586 thousand citizens living there and only 3 electoral votes which each vote representing 200 thousand voters. You can see how unethical these elections are because the system only focuses on the highest populated states which are an unfair tactic towards smaller states. Feels like our government is deceiving us and that is unconstitutional. A recent example of the Electoral College choosing the presidential candidate in today’s society was no other than Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton also ran for the position for president, she won the popular vote but ended up losing to Donald Trump due to majority votes in the Electoral College. Winning popular votes is meaningless when it comes to running for the presidency in a sense if at the end of the day Electoral College will always have the final say.
The National Popular Vote movement launched in 2006 to purpose a fair election that guarantees the Presidency to the candidate that has the most popular vote. This method is so much more efficient in various ways. This gives the American citizens more hope and relief knowing that their votes actually matter and who they choose as their presidential candidate could actually come true. Also giving the citizen the feeling as If they are involved in the election and do not have their vote determined by people who do not understand what it is, to truly be an average American citizen. Unlike Electoral College the National Popular Vote movement is for the people, understanding that “winner takes all” should become more enforced. Awarding all state’s electoral to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each state. This method also helps smaller states compete with larger states when it comes to a president campaign. Because they are not just looking at larger states anymore due to only benefiting more on the events held there but also benefit in small states as well due to every vote actually counting. This method gives less control to the Electoral College and more control towards citizens as it should be.
The system is flawed and it is amazing to see this method that Electoral College uses has been enforced for many decades now. But I feel as if it is time to change this unconstitutional method. Let the people decide who their leader should be instead of a group of people who do not truly understand our situation. I agree completely with the National Popular vote movement, it would change our democracy for the better. Stated in the article, “Not only would it ensure that the person who actually got more votes win the presidency, but it would also force candidates to spend time engaging with voters in all 50 states, instead of just a handful swing states.” We need more American citizen engaged in our government because we are having it controlled by higher-ups that think they know what is best for us. If we can get this movement to succeed every vote would truly count.
