The Electoral College and its Purpose.

The Electoral College and its Purpose

It is a normal process of life to outgrow, adapt, and change social normality’s, such as the way we dress, how we talk, and even what we eat. These changes occur because of society, we as people have learned to respect each other, grow together, and fight for a common goal. However, the same is not true for our government, as the people of the United States, we should expect the same practice of change in government processes, especially when we have outgrown a major component in the way our government officials are elected, most importantly the president. The topic of decision is the electoral college, created during a time of social separation, based off of race, gender, and economic class. These separations no longer determine our way of living and interacting, but for our people elected to pose change, the process of electing them does not follow this same structure. The electoral college is outdated and should no longer be a part of the election process.

Most people have no idea what the electoral college does, what the purpose of it is, or that it even exists. The electoral college is a body of electors selected to elect the president and vice president of the Untied States. This process was added to our constitution in 1804 with the idea to have only qualified citizens vote and elect our presidents. The initial meaning of qualified citizens was meant to exclude African Americans, women, and any white male who did not own land. The electoral college has the power to override the popular vote; therefore, being the final step in electing our president. This still occurs to this day and most people do not know, it is believed in our society that every person’s vote counts in determining the president. The perfect example of the electoral college overriding the popular vote took place during the 2016 election between republican Donald Trump and democrat Hillary Clinton. The popular vote, which is the number of votes from all citizens cast for a candidate, was in favor of Hillary Clinton with 48.3 percent of votes for her to be president. This left Donald Trump with 46.2 percent of votes, but he still ended up being elected president. This happened because the electoral college vote was in favor of Donald Trump. Most of the time the electoral college vote and the popular vote correlate with each other, this being the reason there is not much light shed on the electoral college. This difference between votes has only happened four times in our history; however, the election of 2016 has been the one to highlight the electoral college due to the shocking outcome of who became president.

Furthermore, the people elected to the electoral college have a major political party bias most feel they cannot waiver from. The electors are selected from their party members, by being very active in party meetings or speaking out publicly on their party’s behalf. There are minimal requirements for a state to elect their officials, this causes for a lot of weight to be put on one political party or the other. Therefore, each state’s number of elected voters can be heavily republican or democrat. With one side being heavier than the other this can cause for the electoral college members to vote with their political party rather than voting for who they personally believe should be president. Also, the people elected to serve the electoral college do not fairly represent mass population, such as the working middle class, college aged students, and the homeless. The mass population of people do not categorize themselves with a certain party; But, elected members have a heavy political background, getting them to where they are on the electoral college. Their lives represent the political scene to a fault, they have extended knowledge of the behind the scenes of the political world, certain information that does not matter to the population living their everyday lives. The mass population vote for the person they feel will help change something they can personally relate to. Most people living their everyday life do not think about about the government, they do not interact with their common party members and do not share the same perspectives as the electoral college members.

The process of the electoral college is no longer useful, we have the popular vote witch is well enough to serve our country in determining the president of the United States. Every person’s vote should weigh the exact same, we do not need a body of individuals higher than the rest, the situation being discussed sounds a lot like segregation. The creation of the electoral college quietly excluded women, African Americans, and individuals with poor economic standing. Our country no longer serves by these standers of exclusions, the entire point of the democratic government system in place is so that we have a fair and trustworthy election process so that the entire population can be heard. The popular vote is a straightforward way in electing our president and other government officials; Therefore, having only this system in place will allow for a fair and equal voting operation that is subsequently all that is needed for the election process.

Lastly, the electoral college process is untrustworthy to the citizens of the United States. In our society we are told that it is important for everyone to vote because every vote counts; However, with the electoral college process it negates the entire idea that the commoners vote truly does matter. The process makes people not want to vote in light of the most recent election in 2016, it is safe to say a lot of people were truly shocked and disappointed by the results, thus causing a sudden interest in the electoral college. People do not want to waste their time placing a vote that does not mean anything due to a higher process that isn’t even discussed and explained to the people of this nation.

In conclusion, the electoral college should be eliminated from our election process, due to the nature of why it was created. It is very disheartening to learn about what the electoral college is, I have grown up learning that every person’s votes matter which had always made me excited to turn 18 and be able to vote. With this process gone, I believe society members will have more faith in the government and that will help to increase voter turnout.