As millions of Americans watched the election on television, we felt defeated and helpless when Trump was winning in states that were normally Democrat. Before Election Day we assumed Hillary Clinton will defeat Trump because she had more votes than him. She didn’t win. Why? Electoral College. The Electoral College plays a huge role in presidential elections.
Blame our founding fathers, the Electoral College was established in the Constitution as a compromise between the presidential election by a vote in Congress and the citizens’ popular vote. There are 538 electors within the Electoral College who cast votes to the next President and Vice-President. But, these Electors are completely anonymous and are presumed to be loyal and competent. So, we don’t know who is who, we only know the outcome.
How does the Electoral College work?
Before the election, each state has their own political parties and they choose the potential Electors. The potential Electors can come from candidates with popular vote or members of a party. On actual Election Day, voters in each state select their state’s Electors by casting their vote for President. Just like the political parties process, but voters select the Electors that are potential. In almost every state, a candidate who wins the most votes in the state will be counted as the state’s electoral votes. In reality, voters choose their state’s Electors.
Yup, your vote went straight toward the Electoral College.
This system we have implies that the millions of American’s votes are useless and irrelevant. Why do we have an Electoral College when we can just use popular vote to determine who will be our next president? Well, the Electoral College believes Americans cannot make the good judgment for our country. This entire belief that the citizens will harm the rights of the people and the nation justifies the reason why we can’t trust our own country. The system also gives a slight possibility for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote.
Although it is rare to have the loser win since it only happened four times, now a fifth time in history where the loser of the popular vote won the electoral vote. The corrupt notion that Americans can’t make rational decisions is false. I mean, look at the who’s going to our 45th President. We didn’t elect Donald Trump, the Electors did.
America is not a democracy. If we want a true democracy, we need to abolish the Electoral College entirely.
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