The vote of a citizen in the United States is nowhere near effective. We have the Electoral College to thank for this. The Electoral College defeats the purpose of the popular vote and takes power away from the people. The government is too strong and the United States is not much of the democracy as it claims to be, at least based off of their voting system.
The way the Electoral College works can be a bit complicated, but once explained and understood one can see how it destroys the purpose of an individuals vote. Each state and a few other areas in the United States have a certain amount of electoral votes, based off of population and size. The electoral votes are made by electors, which are elected by the people of that state or area. These electors vote, and their vote is the deciding factor in the election.
This Electoral College gives too much power to the government. Electors votes are the only votes that count towards a presidential election. Yes, the electors are elected by the people in their state, but for all states besides the eight that have to vote by the party that the people voted for and the eighteen that have to vote based on the popular vote, totaling a twenty-six states or areas, there is no law that says these electors have to vote on the side that they were elected to elect for. This is what makes the average American citizens vote useless. For example, in the 2004 election President George W. Bush did not win the popular vote but still won the election.
The 2004 election proves that the government is too powerful and too big. Bush tied in electoral votes, but lost by popular vote. So the vote was taken to the Supreme Court and it was decided there that Bush would be president. The government took control. The popular vote, which is the entire populations vote, or at least the people who decided to vote, was not in Bush’s favor and still he was elected president. He won off of the Supreme Courts decision, which was in favor of the electoral votes. Which proves that this system does not always work in the peoples favor.
This Electoral College system affects the views of voters in two ways, either it makes them vote only based on the party their candidate is in or not vote at all. People still want to feel like they can make a difference in the election. So they will probably vote based on a party and not the actual candidate. Basically, they would just be voting for the electors in the Electoral College and about half of the states electors are not limited to voting based off of what the people have to say. So does there vote somewhat count? No it still does not, they are not the ones making the ultimate impact on the election.
Other people believe that their vote does not count, which is true, and creates a drop in voters across the United States. If people feel or know that their vote will not effect the election why would they waste their time voting’so not only does this system make voting pointless, but it makes people not want to vote. This, in a sense, takes away our voting right. What is the point of have the right to vote when it doesn’t matter?
The Electoral College is an infringement to our voting right as American citizens. It is a system that hands the government too much power over elections, while the government has enough power already.
