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Remember the aftermath of the 2000 election? Liberals called for “every vote” to be counted, claiming the Electoral College system is unfair and must be abolished. That’s just the thing, though. Every vote was counted, and it was applied to the system we have here in America. The Electoral College exists for a reason. The founding fathers of our nation put it into place for the long-term preservation of the United States.

Look at the first map on the right. It is a county-by-county map of the 2004 presidential election. The red represents counties that went for President Bush, and the blue represents counties that went for Senator Kerry. Just look at how much more red there is than blue. Bush won the popular vote this year, but the total popular vote numbers don’t seem to reflect such a big win. Look closer, though, and notice the main areas that are blue. Blue areas are mostly the major cities. Look at the states of California and New York, certainly known for having two of the most liberal voting records in the nation. They are almost entirely red. Only the high-population areas are blue, making the entire state so. You may say, “But Bush won the popular vote this year, too. That map doesn’t mean anything.” Look at the second map. It is a map of the Bush versus Gore 2000 election. There is as much red on the 2000 map as there is on the 2004 map.

This means the great majority of the nation voted for President Bush. This is not always reflected in the popular vote numbers, though, because the high-population cities (out of touch with mainstream America, as these maps very apparently show) vote almost exclusively for the Democratic candidate. Simply put, the Electoral College keeps New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco from controlling the nation. It gives smaller states a fair say in presidential elections. You may say, however, “But it’s not fair. The majority should always rule.” Is that really the case? Should 50 percent plus one set the agenda for the entire nation? The answer is no. Think about it for a second. First, hundreds of small parties would pop up, appealing to the extremities of the current political parties. Then, we would see completely indecisive elections in which hundreds of candidates were on the ballot, each getting a small percentage of the vote. We would have to have run-off elections for every race on the ballot. Due to even closer margins of victory there would be more complaints (usually false) about voter fraud or intimidation.

But our nation is supposed to be complete rule by the majority, right? This is simply not the case. We could have mass anarchy and constant feuding, possibly even war, if we determined that to be elected, someone simply needed fifty percent of the vote plus one. The Electoral College system, in fact, gives more of a say to people than does a “majority rules” system. How? It’s pretty simple. In a “majority rules” system Midwesterners, for example, would not have much of a say in an election. In fact neither would many of those red counties on the two maps. The only areas with much of a say in a “majority rules” system would be the major cities on either coast. Additionally just look at California and New York. See all the red with a little blue in the major cities? Yet these states still go to Democratic candidates. Without the Electoral College system our nation might, in many elections, look like California and New York do—almost entirely red but going blue because of the major cities. And splitting electoral votes in a state based on the popular vote would not yield any more fairness. It would simply take away the say of smaller states in a national election by splitting their already few electoral votes. Now how would any of that be fair?

To sum up—we need the Electoral College system. It gives a say to every sector of our nation. It keeps the country from anarchy. It is what our founding fathers wanted for our nation because they understood a small state should get a say in an election just as does a large state. Electoral votes are still proportioned by population, so states with higher populations have more electoral votes than the small-population states. It is clearly the fairest system because it keeps the cities from controlling the nation. Our nation is not a collection of inter-connected city-states, controlled by the citizenry of the main cities. It is made up of different states, each of which has a say in a presidential election. For the preservation of the nation we must keep the Electoral College.

 

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