A Reaction on the Electoral College

The Electoral College causes frustration and rifts apart the United States because of the taxing power barrier we have in our current government. Saying that the Electoral College is an embarrassment to our form of government is an understatement. It causes the citizens views of how Americar's democracy has become unbalanced in power due to the perception that the Electoral College are the primary electors of our countryr's president. Factors regarding this political controversy comes from the origin of unbalanced power that the Electoral College withholds. The Electoral College should be abandoned and/or should be replaced with a method that does not shy out citizens, states and other groups of the United States because it causes jurisdiction issues amongst Americar's democracy and society. In the political eye, swing states are significant in votes because they are easier to sway towards your choice of political party. Political leaders main concern is getting the votes of these states, not only because of an easier grasp but because the other states like Texas and New York have continuously voted for the same political party over the last few elections. Over the past 20 years, thirty-three states have voted for the same party consistently (Hoban 2016). Studies have shown that ninety percent of the states in America have voted for their stater's corresponding party since Bill Clintonr's presidential election (Hoban 2016). Swing states are considered valuable owning to the fact that they can change the dominant governmental party by advertising themselves and setting up conferences to persuade the people. To represent, Maine has not seen a Republican in the Electoral College since 1998 but Ohio has an equal amount winning times over the past 10 elections with each political party having a win of a total of 5 times (National Constitution Center 2016). By having these swing states, there is no guarantee that a political party has the dominant vote. To many, this possess the confusion on how these small states determine the President. Because no political party has the dominant vote, the Presidential candidates must heavily advertise their campaign in order to gain the states, thus resulting to the conclusion that swing states are given too much power during the elections. It is usual for someone to feel as if they dont matter in relationship, due to the misinterpretation or communication error that can occur. At a governmental standpoint, citizens should not feel that their votes are only for participation points and is their noble duty as a citizen. Per PEW Research Center, thirty percent of unregistered voters have not voted because they have the ideal that their vote would not impact the result of the election (Pew Research Center 2017). The Electoral College, to some unregistered voters, has more power over the millions of votes that the people have chosen in their ballots. The results in the 2016 Presidential election was a clear example that the citizens of America have voted but in return have not received the president that they voted for. In the 2016 election, the Electoral College concluded that Donald Trump was best fit to be our Chief Commanding Officer of our military and our countryr's stabilizer for forthcoming problems. This decision was not made upon many Americar's citizens. Majority of the residents of the United States chose Hilary Clinton to command America. She won the popular vote by 2.8 million but still managed not to become our nationr's leader (Jalalzai 2018). To give you a bigger picture, there are approximately 325.7 million residents in the United States. From that set amount 138 million citizens voted, which might seem significant, but that number is a portion of the 58.1% that are able to vote (Penn State University Libraries). Comparing the 138 million residents that voted to all the Electoral College electors, to many it is considered unfair. Having almost 140 million votes compared to the 270 majority votes determined by the Electoral College, is unrelative which creates this concern. It shows that the Electoral Colleger's votes hold more value to our government instead of the citizens. Continuing, the Electoral College makes it a tedious task for third-party candidates and independent candidates because of the structural barriers that it proposes. Democratic and Republicans are the primitive selectives in Presidential elections unlike, third parties which many seem as irrelevant to voters. Third-party candidates dont have a chance of winning a Presidential election because of the mathematical requirement that produces the all-important number of 270 electoral votes that are needed to secure the Presidency because there are currently 538 total Electoral College votes. (Mazmanian 2016). Under law, you must have the majority vote to win but for third-party candidates, this undertaking shows signs of being impractical. If the third-party candidate was to pass this predicament, Congress would be the ones who decides the absolute vote. During the 2016 Presidential election, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton the major candidates for their political parties, respectfully, were the only ones who were able to get the majority vote rather than third-party candidates Jill Stein and Garry Johnson (Nefussy 2017). Claiming that the Electoral College is the only reason for their demise is not true, but it is the primary reason why third-party and independent candidates, such has Jill Stein and Garry Johnson. This portrays that the Electoral College is unfair and makes it harder for underrepresented parties to win the Presidential election. Because of how our government is structured, fixing the Electoral College could potentially take years. To this problem, there are few solutions that could change the way the Electoral Colleger's power is distributed. If I were a political critic i would suggest eliminating the Electoral College all together. The purpose of the Electoral College is marginal to the 21st century. Though eliminating the Electoral College sounds like an easy task, it is nonviable. To have the Electoral College constitutionally abolished, an amendment must be ratified. According to Stanford News, the amendment must be ratified by, either the legislatures of three-fourths of the states or state ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states. (Parker 2016). If this method was in action and was granted, without disruption over other politics, abolition could be the best option that America has. Sadly, efforts to terminate the Electoral College have been denied. Per the National Archives and Records Association, over the last 2 centuries more than, 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. (National Archives and Records Association). Over time, we may see the results of a successful proposal to Congress, but this solution is the only end to take away this shameful structure. To conclude, the Electoral College is an embarrassment to our society, not only because of how irrelevant it is to modern day society but the multiple issues that it concerns involving the U.S residents. The power that this outdated structural strategy should be fixed or abolished due to its excessive strength that lays it foundation on the innocent. The Electoral College must exchange its power to a replacement stabilizer in order for everything to have the same amount of power, but until then this piece of our government remains unfair.

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