What is the Electoral College? Does YOUR vote really count?
Most people have heard of The Electoral College during presidential election years. What exactly is the electoral college? Simply put, it's a group of people appointed by each state who formally elect the president and vice president of the United States. To understand how this process began and how it continues today we can look at the Constitution of the United States. Section 1 Clause 2 of The Constitution explains how many electors each state is entitled to have.
Since 1964, there have been 538 electors in each presidential election. How did they decide on the number 538? Well, the number of electors is equal to the membership of the United States Congress: 435 representatives plus 100 senators, and 3 electors from the District of Columbia. Essentially, the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate are trying to add up the electors in every state until they pass 270 electoral votes which is just over have of the 538 electoral votes and win the presidency.
Each states receives a particular number of electors based on population size. The census is conducted every 10 years. Every time the census happens, states might gain or lose electoral votes. For example, if a candidate wins Texas, they get all 38 electoral votes. The loser gets none.
With this current voting system, it's possible for a candidate to win the popular vote and still not clear 270 electoral votes. This means that the popular vote loser can still win through electoral votes by small margins. This is how Donald Trump won the presidency.
I'm not saying that I'd rather have Hillary Clinton as our president, but this flaw in our electoral system needs to be addressed on a massive scale. The electoral college puts most of the voting power into these 11 of these 12 states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia.
The average American has no voice. If we collectively use our voice to demand a reform of our election process, we can present our concerns formally so that they can be considered on a national level. This petition seeks support from American voters that wish to repeal the Electoral College to restore the voting power of the average American citizen and implement a system in which we all vote for every law passed and we have re-elections for previous laws.
