The Electoral College continues to contradict the voice of the people and should be abolished, for it is outdated and unnecessary.

The Electoral College was created in the constitution. Each state has one elector for each house member and two for the senate members, totaling 538 electors; a majority of 270 must be won for the presidency.

The Founding Fathers originally created this system because access to government information was hard to come by. They gave more sway to populous states that candidates were more likely to visit and give out information. This reason is no longer relevant as the age of technology and the internet give information directly to people across the entire country. 

The Electoral College discourages voter turnout, as some ballots are more important than others. Voters in larger states may feel that their vote is insignificant because it is, especially in states that  almost always vote for the same party.

Candidates also almost always campaign and focus on certain battleground states because they have more impact and tend to flip from election to election.

In every other election, candidates are chosen directly through the popular vote. The presidential election is the only one to use the Electoral College. If it’s good enough for every other election, why not for the president?

One of the largest negative impacts of the Electoral College are the cases where it has contradicted the popular vote. In five different elections, including the 2000 and 2016 elections, a candidate lost the popular vote, some by millions of ballots, but won in the electoral college, thus winning the presidency. This is completely contradictory. The people clearly chose one candidate, but because of the sway of certain states, that candidate lost. 

Arguments for the Electoral College to remain in place counter that if it was decided based on the popular vote, a nationwide recount could take forever. That’s a risk the country should be willing to take. It may be complicated to change as the Electoral College is written into the constitution, however; there have been three changes made before, and one proposal to abolish that was filibustered on the Senate floor.

While it may take some time, the process to abolish should be started immediately. The main reason for the implementation of the Electoral College is no longer relevant. If it continues to remain in place, it will continue to harm the outcome of elections and the candidate choice of american citizens will be stifled.