The Impact Of Eliminating The Electoral College

The
Impact of Eliminating the Electoral College
The Electoral College is a very large
part of determining which candidate for presidency will become the next
Chief Executive of the United States of America. Often times, it
is the only important factor in this decision, with the popular vote accounting
for considerably less. The Electoral College is a long-standing tradition
in the history of the United States, despite the fact that the idea of
its being eliminated has been tossed around by many. Both Republicans
and Democrats are opposed to this idea, due to the consequences of its
removal.

One of these consequences would be an election
based solely on popular vote. Small states, which are represented
in the Electoral College by no less than three votes, would be very much
opposed to this notion. They would have much less representation
in a popular vote, due to the sheer mathematics of their population size.

In comparison to a much larger state, the representation of a smaller state
would be drastically reduced from what it is under the current system.

For example, California has 18 times more votes than a three-vote state,
but has much more than 18 times more people in the state. It is clear
that small states are at a great advantage under the Electoral College
system.

Small states would also be at a disadvantage
with the absence of the Electoral College due to the plain fact that candidates
would have less incentive to campaign in those states. Under the
current system, presidential candidates go to small states far less than
they do to the states with greater electoral power. However, with
a popular vote this phenomenon would be immensely magnified. Candidates
would exclusively campaign in, and attend to the needs of, the largely
populated states. There would be much less of an incentive for them
to visit the small states when they could take a majority of the popular
vote by winning a select few states, a number of states far less than the
12 needed to win the majority of Electoral votes.

The Electoral College, with its “winner-take-all”
policies, discourages the emergence of serious third parties. In
other countries, parties who win a small portion of the votes in an election
are much more likely to gain some representation in the country’s government.

Here, however, the winner-take-all principle does not allow for this to
happen. While a third party may receive relatively few of the popular
votes, it will definitely receive none of the electoral votes. Again,
the Electoral College magnifies many of the results of a popular election.

Acting as a magnifying glass, the Electoral
College somewhat levels the playing field for the small states, by giving
them more representation. It also gives those states more exposure,
by forcing the candidates to come to the state for campaign purposes.

Also, the Electoral College helps maintain a two-party system, by discouraging
third parties with the winner-take-all principle. If the United States
were to eliminate the Electoral College, the consequences for America would
be dire indeed.