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Juan Donado

High School Student,

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Should Americans eliminate the Electoral College and elect their presidents through simple majority vote?

Given that some presidents have won without persuading the majority of Americans, and the huge deal of money spent only on swing states I ask myself that question

I have always thought that it is unfair that republicans in California or Democrats in Texas are not taken into account just because people around them think differently.

Time for change?

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  • Hlmut Degen

    • 0
    Nov 13 2012: I just did some math: comparing the ratio by dividing the population per state by the number of electoral votes for fifty states:

    - The lowest ratio is in Wyoming: 1:189,316: This means on average you need 189,316 people for one electoral vote (this does not consider the number of eligible voters, but I assume the proportion is the same in the states).
    - The highest ratio is in California: 1:685,307: You need on average 685,307 people for one electoral vote.

    This means, more than three times more people/votes are required in California for one electoral votes, compared to Wyoming. In other words, each vote in Wyoming is three times more effective. This does not sound fair, what do you think?

    • Noah Crossfield

      • 0
      Nov 15 2012: I see what you are saying, but this is due mainly to the fact that we stopped adding representatives to the House of Representatives. We used to keep adding representatives based on population, but now we just switch how many seats a state can have based on population. If we added representatives, (or atleast gave representatives more vote based on population, or some similar system) the problem would be moot. I think it would be easier to change this aspect of the electoral college than change the electoral college.

      • Hlmut Degen

        • 0
        Nov 15 2012: Hi Noah, thanks for your comment. I think one of the problems is that the people who can change the election system are impacted by the same decision. This indicates a conflict of interest. Changing the election system requires a non-partisan mind set. I am not sure we have the mindset at the moment.

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