Electoral College: Should it Be Abolished for the 2008 Election?

As election season begins, the age-old debate in America has started to spark again - Should the Electoral College be abolished?

The Electoral College is a group of 538 officials who are elected by popular vote to cast electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States. Each state has a number of these President Electors, as they are called, correlating with population. Their votes end up determining who actually becomes the next president. This system allows for there to never be a direct election and; therefore, the popular vote on Election Day, in the end, really does not matter.

So, what exactly is the problem with the Electoral College? Opponents call it the "winner takes all" phenomenon. The "winner takes all" refers to the disproportionate voting method between states. For example, if a democrat takes forty percent of the votes in a solidly republican state such as Texas, the Republican would still take the 34 electoral votes for Texas. This provides little motivation for any Democrats to spend time in Texas and other Republicans states, and vice versa. We can remember back to the Bush-Gore election of 2000. Where the popular vote wanted Gore by a huge percentage; however, because of the Electoral College, George Bush was elected. There have been similar issues in the elections in 1972 and 1984. It is a deadly cycle that keeps revolving every election year. Many people believe that the Electoral College does not represent the democratic model that our country was founded on and that the views of the nation's population.

However, proponents believe just the contrary. People who are in favor of the Electoral College argue that it saves the nation from being taken over by large states with large populations. For example, if the United States were to have a direct election and one candidate won in California by over 550,000 votes, but the other candidate won 49 other states by about 20,000 per state- The candidate who won 49 states would still lose the election! So, does having an election without the Electoral College really represent the views of the population?