Some words about the upcoming elections…

I am not going to speak about who I am going to vote for and why you should do the same ;) (give me a call if you want that information ;)) but I do want to talk about the Electoral College. Sounds boring, but please stick with me. I have heard A LOT of people say lately…”oh it doesn’t matter, I’m not going to vote, it’s not a popular vote anyway.” I understand that the fact that we do not use a nationwide popular vote to elect the President is bothersome and somewhat confusing. It makes sense to elect a President on what the majority of the people want… right? Well, as is everything else with politics, this sounds and seems great on the surface, but one must always look a level deeper to make sense of it all.

The Electoral College allows an even representation across different regions of the United States, therefore representing different perspectives equally.
Example: Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming have a collected population of about 3 million. They have the same amount of electoral votes as Florida which has a population of about 9.5 million people. Now if we operated using nationwide popular voting, the viewpoints in the less populated states (more rural areas) would be completely overridden by the more populated states (more metropolitan areas). Now we all know that people in urban areas and people in metropolitan areas have very different viewpoints. Neither should be neglected, because both are extremely important for this country. With a popular vote, the urban folks would be absolutely overridden, essentially losing their voice.

This even distribution of representation reserves extremely important political powers to the States. For example, the House of Representatives was designed such that it represents the States according to their population. The Senate was designed to represent each State equally regardless of its population. The Electoral College was designed such that the number of electoral votes equals the number of Senators plus the number of Representatives. To get rid of the Electoral College in favor of a nationwide popular vote for President would be directly contrary to the federal structure laid out in our Constitution that serves to protect the powers of the States. If we believe there are reasons to maintain State representation in the Senate and House of Representatives, then why should State representation for the election of the President be any different?
In conclusion, the Electoral College has performed its function successfully for over 200 years. It has succeeded in ensuring that the President has sufficient popular support to govern properly and effectively and that all perspectives are equally represented.
So…whoever wins this election, righteously won regardless of whether or not they received the nationwide popular vote. Maintaining the system of the Electoral College allows a very important balance between the National and State Governments in which the Founding Fathers of this great nation very deliberately intended. So please, get out there and VOTE, your voice will be heard!