Electoral College is outdated, unfair

Chris Ledermuller

Question: What modern-day nation does not allow its own citizens to elect their own leader and has a little-known political apparatus that can override the will of the populace to ever seek reform?

Answer: This bleak picture may sound like nations in Latin America or the former Yugoslavia, but it describes one of the freest, wealthiest countries in the world. This is actually the United States.

The political apparatus is the Electoral College, an 18th-century relic that determines which one of two men will govern over 250 million Americans, regardless of who they chose to be their leader.

Last Tuesday's election and the aftermath clearly show why this apparatus should be abolished.

The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors who pledge to vote for their party's candidate should he get the most votes in the state. The total number of Representatives and Senators in the state determines electoral votes. The District of Columbia has three electoral votes.

The ballot debacle in Florida illustrates the problem of the Electoral College. Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush are fighting over 25 winner-take-all electoral votes. Whoever has the most votes in Florida will have enough votes to go to the White House. Bush could have the most votes in Florida and win the presidency, but he would still have fewer votes nationally than Gore. This allows the Electoral College to make a shortcut around the will of the people.

Another way a presidential candidate can use the Electoral College to override the popular vote is by winning just 11 states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. Imagine if a president carried the popular vote of 39 states and still lost the vote.

This type of mischief should not be possible in modern America. Back in the nation's infancy, most of the country was undeveloped, transportation and communication lines were poor and voting was limited to white males who owned property.

Our Founding Fathers believed an elite above the elite was needed to choose a president.

Another good reason to abolish the Electoral College has to do with fairness. The Founding Fathers designed the Electoral College to be unfair. The Framers wanted the United States to be a federal aristocracy, which is why democracy only applied to white male property owners.

The Electoral College was created to perpetuate this system and not allow any mischief-makers like third parties to meddle with an elitist paradise.

The United States has matured in 200 years, much to the gentry's chagrin. With a few exceptions, any American citizen over 18 years old can vote. Also, transportation and communications systems are so sophisticated that anybody around the world, not just the United States, can get an abundance of information about presidential candidates.

The main argument of Electoral College proponents say the current system is fair to smaller states, so their votes won't be overwhelmed by New York or California. Supporters say, "what about the states?"

What about the states?

After all, a president represents people, not 50 arbitrarily defined political boundaries. Under a one-person, one-vote direct democracy, where a liberal, conservative or any other political orientation happens to reside would not matter.

A vote in California would truly be equal to a vote in Wyoming, rather than 54 important electoral votes versus 3 inconsequential votes. The theoretical advantage the Electoral College gives small states still favors large states.

The only way small states, large states and most importantly, the people who have to live by the laws of the land, truly would have fair representation if a direct democratic vote replaces the Electoral College.

Not only would the chaos of last Tuesday's election disappear, but for a nation that cherishes individual rights and fair representation, direct democracy is the American Way.

Chris Ledermuller is a print journalism major and a Daily Forty-Niner staff writer.

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