With the election still undecided, Americans are doing an awful lot of thinking about the Electoral College. As we brace for Nevada and cross our fingers for Pennsylvania, one might stop and wonder what the Electoral College is and why the presidential election is the only election in the whole country that uses it.
The Founders who wrote the constitution created the Electoral College as a last minute decision. They were trying to figure out a way to balance the mass interests of the country while still giving people a voice. They feared "mass rule" and they feared that states rights wouldn't matter as much if some states became more populous than others.
Chris Hayes' podcast on the topic outlines the many flaws with the process — most especially the fact that the Electoral College often does not allow the winner of the popular vote to also become the president. This is problematic for a country that is focused on allowing the people to have a say in government. The president who loses the popular vote becoming president has become more and more common lately.
The reason for the increase, are the demographics of the country. Over time, the urban centers in the country became a spot for immigrants and job growth. Here, people could find 21st century sustainable jobs. In middle America, it has remained rural because jobs are in industries like farming and steelwork, which are now growing. These places, while less populous, still get at least two electoral votes. This means that in many cases, their votes are worth exponentially more than a person who lives in a populous state like California.
Let's take a look at the Electoral College map.
As of two days after Election Day, this is how it stands. If you weren't familiar with American demographics, you would think America was a conservative nation just by looking at the map. It is overwhelmingly red. However, these red states do not have the population of the blue states. If you look at the map of population density, you will see these states in the middle are less populated.
The Electoral College empowers the primarily white voters in middle America because their votes are simply worth more. This infographic from Wallethub demonstrates which states' votes count the most.
The state where your vote matters the most is in Alaska, which is 67% white and overwhelmingly Republican The state where your vote matters the least is California which is only 37% white and overwhelmingly Democrat.
Why do we even have states where some votes count more than others? The system is broken.
The current system encourages presidential candidates to create platforms that appeals to a few primarily white voters rather than speak a message that applies to the majority. The politics that these candidates take with them when elected is based on information they got when campaigning in white areas, rather than when looking at our increasingly diverse country.
It is time to dismantle the electoral college and let the voters speak.
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