Who's voting for the president? Not you. We live in a society where your vote
doesn't directly count during a presidential election. This is due to an antiquated
system called the electoral college. The electoral college (EC) was founded in 1787.
The founding fathers set up the system so that the president is chosen
indirectly. This was done so that "popular passion," wouldn't factor in as much.
Basically they didn't want presidential campaigns to become purely advertisement
campaigns. (third party times)
But there are a few serious flaws in the electoral college that need to be dealt
with. For example, the well known Democratic motto "one man, one vote," (which
means every vote counts) doesn't apply to presidential elections because of the EC.
The electoral college makes it possible for a candidate who wins the popular vote of
the people to lose the presidency. (electoral college)
This has happened exactly 3 times in the past.
Population per Elector allocated to each of the 50...
English: A certificate for the electoral vote for ...
Graphic showing how the popular vote winner can lo...Once in 1876, and once in
1888, and most recently during the 2000 elections. President Bush lost the popular
vote to candidate Al Gore by over 500,000 votes. Bush still won the presidency
because Florida (a key state in elections) had a last minute change in the electoral
votes. This threw the entire state into a republican vote.
"On two other occasions (1800 and 1824), the House of Representatives
2
picked the president when nobody won an electoral-college majority. Thomas
Jefferson once described this circumstance as 'the most dangerous blot on our
Constitution.' " (electoral college)
Lawrence P. Longley and Neal R. Pierce, two experts on the electoral college
and Harvard teachers, agree wholeheartedly with Jefferson's statement. They know
full well the weaknesses of the EC. They did some calculations to illustrate this point
further. Californians have over two times as much voting power as...
The hanging Chad ~rename your essay to that
I like this essay, because of you state not just the obvious mistakes of our democracy but you put forth some radical ideas to change it that many of us have chosen to ignore, because of apathy. These ideas although well intentioned need to molded around solving the basic problem of our electoral system, which is the inaccracy of voting systems (Chads or computers), security and standardization.
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