Electoral College: Obstruction Of Justice?

4 Pages 1103 Words

When one hears the term “democracy,” one is inclined to think of two things. The first is obviously the United States of America, whose mission seems to be to spread democracy all over the world. Innate of the definition of democracy is the second thing – that the people elect the government. If indeed the United States of America wishes to serve as democratic missionaries to the Middle East and the rest of the world, they should first examine the lack of true direct democracy that exists within our very own voting system. The process of presidential election for the United States resembles a republic far more closely than a democracy. To fix this problem, changes need to be made in the voting system. The Electoral College needs to be completely eradicated.
As the Electoral College exists now, elections for electors are held every four years. They are elected under a general ticket system, where voters choose the electors who match their candidate and party. Two states choose to use the district system, where the congressional leaders in each district vote for electors. Regardless, the electors are supposed to cast their vote for the winner of the popular vote in the state. Twenty-six states do not require electors to vote loyally to their party, and although only 1% of electors are ever disloyal, but with elections as close as the 1992 and 2000 presidential elections, the 1% could potentially make a difference (Wikman). After each state receives its designated number of US Representatives “which may change each decade according to the size of each state’s population as determined by the Census,” the number of electors can be configured (“electoral college”). The government allocates each state with a number of electors equal to its “number of US Senators (always 2) plus the number of US Representatives” (“electoral college”).
Under the assumption that all states used the general ticket system...