Want to Make America Great Again? Abolish the Electoral College

This Election ended in a surprising result: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 1,000,000 votes, yet Trump won the Electoral College by 62 electoral votes.*

This is the fifth time in the history of the United States where a candidate with the popular vote was not elected to the presidency, and because of this, many have argued that at it’s core, the electoral college is anything but democratic.

As of 2010 the majority of the black population live in the South, and 60 percent of black Americans live within 10 states, including Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio – decisive states, all counting for Donald Trump this election. Still, “Clinton held an 80-point advantage among blacks (88 percent to 8 percent),” and also won over the Latino vote by over 30 points.

With Clinton’s support from the Black and Latino vote, it is unclear how Trump won in so many southern states. White Southerners understand that if they can decrease voter turnout of minorities, they can win over the majority of their state. Numerous obstacles have been put in place to deter minority voting, from the gutting of the 1965 Voter Rights Act in 2013, to confusing state ID laws for voting.

As a result, voter turnout is benefiting white voters, and diminishing the power of minority voters. You would think that by 2016 Black Americans wouldn’t be facing the same election troubles they did in the late 1800s, but it unfortunately hasn’t progressed much. These issues are not only unethical and discriminatory, but lead to tight political races in swing states. Florida, for instance, only went to Trump by 1 percent. This means that there are millions of minority Americans living in southern states and voting Democrat, but not seeing their vote count for anything.

Consider the election of 2000: Al Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won by 5 electoral votes. Vote counting took over a month, and in the end, the Supreme Court stopped the recount, and announced Bush as the victor.

This ‘winner-takes-all’ method that gave Florida to Bush, and now Trump, ensures that people within all states, not just minorities, will be silenced when they are voting for the less popular party in their state. If democracy was meant to give voice and power to the people, how can so many Americans be silenced in their own homes?

If this lack of representation weren’t frightening enough, the electoral college also gives more of a voice to white, republican-majority states than they deserve. The system of awarding electoral votes is based on a simple formula whereby each state gets two votes, and then the remaining number of electors is determined by the state populations.

Take a closer look two Southern states: West Virginia and Maryland. West Virginia is awarded 5 electoral votes, and Maryland is awarded 10. By that logic, you would think that Maryland should have just over twice the population size of West Virginia once you subtract those two electoral votes added to each.

However, West Virginia has a population of 1.85 million people, to Maryland’s 5.97 million, making Maryland 3.2 times the population size of West Virginia. So Maryland is 3.2 times more populous than West Virginia, but when they vote in the electoral college, Maryland is only valued at 2 times more than West Virginia.

This particular example does not stand alone. In two other neighboring states, California and Nevada, the imbalance is even more striking. States that are less populous are getting additional say in electing our president because they are automatically awarded two additional electors.

Why use such a system? In the Constitution, the Founding Fathers thought it was important to make sure that the election system stayed out of the direct hands of the people. If a state voted Republican or Democrat, the electors were sworn to place their votes to represent what the people voted. However, there was no punishment on electors for disobeying the system.

According to Fairvote.org, there have been 157 “faithless electors” in the course of U.S. election history. It has happened numerous times where electors vote how they want, regardless of what the people vote for. The disregard for democracy even more blatant, because the power of the vote is completely removed from ANY voter.

In 29 states, electors only face small fines for their disobedience to their state, and in 21 states, there are zero policies stating that electors have to obey their state votes. The electoral college system has potential for voters to lose their representation to electors who can essentially have the final say on an election.

Some people have tried to take this matter into their own hands. Longtime Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California has started a campaign to end the electoral college, and her proposed bill has gained a lot of momentum. Various groups such as MoveOn.org and DailyKos.com are doing the same thing; collecting signatures to end the electoral college.

If we can’t change the electoral college, there is one silver lining in our system which can potentially change our future. We as citizens can appeal to the electors to change their votes from Trump to Clinton. If you are thinking there’s absolutely no chance that Hillary Clinton could be president now, you’re wrong.

Although states have picked their candidate, the electors don’t cast their votes until December 19 of each election year. This gives Americans about a month to try and appeal to their electors.

It’s a long shot to change the outcome of an election, but if you have any sliver of hope left, appeal to them. Tell them to vote the way almost 62 million Americans voted, and elect Hillary Clinton. Or sign petitions to change the electoral college, which can give the power of electing our presidents back to the people. Whatever you do, do not give up and do not be complacent. You have the power to let yourself be heard.