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Amal Abu-Ali
Mr. Hawkins
American Government, Period 5
10 March 2016
Abolish the Electoral College
The Electoral College is the process in which the people of the United States elects their
president. Basically, the Electoral College is a group of people that represent the states of the
U.S. and these are the people who formally cast the votes to elect our president and vice
president. However, many aspects of the Electoral College system are unfair to the citizens of
this great nation. Therefore, the Electoral College should be abolished because it is
undemocratic, it over represents small states, and it hurts third parties.
The Electoral College is extremely undemocratic in many ways. For something to be
democratic, it has to be pertaining to the principle of social equality for all. For example, it
would be democratic if one vote from a citizen counted as a vote for a candidate. However, this
is exactly what the Electoral College does not do, it is therefore undemocratic. It is thought that
perhaps the most worrying is the prospect of a tie in the electoral vote (Document F). If there
happened to be a tie in the electoral vote, the election would then be up to the House of
Representatives. This would once again make the election undemocratic because each state
would only cast one vote so even those with a larger population would get the same amount of
votes as those with a smaller population. Another reason is that the candidate that wins the
popular vote is not always the one to win the election (Document G). This clearly shows that
the candidate that the citizens truly want as president does not always get chosen. Instead, the
Electoral College chooses the president, so the votes that go towards a certain candidate, are not

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always counted towards that one but to the other one. Lastly, on the map on Document A it
shows that a candidate only needs the eleven states with the most electoral votes in order to
win (Document A). This is extremely unfair because if a candidate focuses on these states and
gets the votes from these eleven, they could easily win the election without even needing votes
from all the other states in the nation. This does not give every other state in the nation a fair
chance to choose the candidate that they want to become president. The next reason as to why
the Electoral College should be abolished is because it over represents small states.
The system of the Electoral College gives the smaller states an unfair advantage by over
representing them. This system essentially gives the smaller states more power to vote for the
president because they get three electoral votes by default. This system is flawed because many
of these small states should get one or two based on their population, therefore this system is
unfair. Evidence is shown in the map where each of the smaller states, that dont have a high
enough population to count electoral votes, gets a minimum of three electoral votes (Document
A). This gives the smaller states an unfair advantage because if a candidate wins enough of the
smaller states, the electoral votes will be so much more than that of a larger state. This would
allow a candidate to not need as many of the larger states, the states with much more people that
should have more say, to vote for them. The Electoral College system favors some citizens over
others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their vote for president (Document
D). Instead of voting for the president solely using the votes of the citizens, the smaller states get
larger say because there are more of them with three electoral votes each. The candidates could
easily just depend on the smaller states and win because there are so many of them and that
would give them enough electoral votes. There are times when the Electoral College violates
political equality. It is not a neutral counting device (Document D). The Electoral College

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system will never be a perfect system, in this case, there will always be some sort of unfairness.
It violates the idea of political equality because political equality means that everyone below the
law is treated equally in the political sense, however, that is clearly seen as false in the Electoral
College. Lastly, the Electoral College should be abolished because it hurts third parties.
The Electoral College system also hurts third parties in many ways. These small parties
are often people with ideas that are outside the mainstream. They are looked down upon by the
Electoral College because they dont want change, they like it the way that it is. They want the
candidate to think in the same way that they do, so they put down those who dont, and these
people are the third parties. The independent candidates such as John B. Anderson and Ross
Perot in the 1980 and 1992 election got absolutely no electoral votes (Document B). This
clearly shows that third party candidates never stand a chance against the other candidates. This
is unfair to them because although they may have different ideals compared to other candidates,
they still deserve to get votes if the people want to vote for them; however, the Electoral College
system prevents that from happening. It is often thought that the abolition of state-by-state,
winner-take-all electoral votes would encourage single-issue ideologues and eccentric
millionaires to jump into presidential contests (Document E). This makes it more fair for those
candidates who usually dont get any votes at all. It gives them a chance to pose different ideas
that most candidates may not think of, therefore making it more possible for third parties to win.
The Electoral College system, bolsters the two-party system by discouraging independent
candidacies that splinter the electorate. It generates moderate mandates for parties that seek a
broad consensus through alliances and accommodations (Document E). Disregarding ideas that
seem different and strange is not the right way to treat people that think differently than others,
especially in a nation of freedom. This system promotes the people that think in a broad sense

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and are alike others however, it isnt fair because this system is supposed to be equal, this shows
the unfairness. Although there are many, many reasons as to why the Electoral College should be
abolished, there are quite a few reasons that show the good sides to this system as well.
The system of the Electoral College was originally a Framers Plan, and thats why most
people see it as a good system. The Framers believed that the average citizen was not educated
enough about the candidates so they couldn't make an informed decision. This is why they
created the system of the Electoral College. The votes from the citizens would go to the Electoral
College, and they would go through them but then make educated decisions based on what they
saw. Although this may seem fair, it isnt truly as equal as it should be because electoral votes for
a certain candidate would not always match the votes from the citizens. Evidence is shown when
Mitch McConnell stated that, Our system is not designed to be simple and efficient. It is
designed to promote good government and legislation that forwards the common goods of a large
and diverse nation (Document C). When the Electoral College system was first created, it was a
known thing that it was not a simple system, however, it was a system that worked incredibly
well in electing some of the best presidents that this nation has ever had. If this system was any
different than how it is, many of the amazing presidents that we had may not have become
president and this nation may have been incredibly different. On the other hand, this system was
used so long ago, that by now it has become outdated. The system of the Electoral College has
formed our political parties, moderated our more extreme elements, and forged the presidential
campaigns that have given direction to our ship of state (Document C). The only reason the
nation is as great as it has become is because of the presidents that have lead it. These great
leaders were chosen using this system, therefore it can be seen that great things can result from
the Electoral College. However, there is no way of knowing if great leadership will continue

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while using this system, it may have worked in the past but nobody knows if it will work the
same in the future. The modern day society is always changing, the way the president is elected
is bound to change at one point in order to keep up with the rest of society. The Electoral College
Makes sure that the states count in presidential elections. As such, it is an important part of our
federalist system-- a system worth preserving (Document C). This system is a way to make sure
that every single states gets to vote. If this system were any other way, although it would be
almost impossible to change, the very small states could easily be seen as unneeded. This may
seem like a fair system, but it would be even more fair if each citizen vote counted for a vote
towards a candidate. Overall, the Electoral College system has many good points, but far too
many flaws.
The Electoral College system should definitely be abolished because it is undemocratic, it
over represents smaller states, and it hurts third parties. Abolishing the Electoral College would
make the process of voting actually fair and equal which is what it is supposed to be. If each vote
from each citizen counted as a vote towards a candidate, than the president would be elected
based on what the citizens wanted, rather than on what the electors want. With this system, it
doesnt necessarily count each vote towards the candidate that was voted for, it basically looks at
each vote as a suggestion and the electors dont always properly take them into account.
Abolishing the Electoral College would give the citizens of this nation an opportunity to vote for
the president they want rather than those with more power in the government, the Electoral
College, to choose for them.