ELECTIONS
The Benefits and Drawbacks of the Electoral College
This article is in my “Issues Breakdowns” section.
Introduction: If you paid any attention to the 2016 Presidential election, you may or may not remember that then-candidate Donald Trump won the electoral college 306 to 232 but lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes. This has sparked intense debate over the value and necessity of the electoral college. Some argue that it’s outdated and no longer serves a purpose while others assert that it’s a timeless institution that has protected our democracy so far and will continue to do so. So which is it?
In an effort to be fair, I’ll examine both sides of this debate — all the possible arguments and rebuttals. We’ll take a look at what the electoral college’s purpose was and is to better understand if it serves that purpose now. Let’s get into it.
Section 1: The Creation of the Electoral College
Section 1.1: What is the Electoral College?
If you don’t know how the Electoral College works, here’s a refresher. In electing the president, there’s 51 democratic elections nationwide on election day in November — one in each state plus Washington D.C. Then, the electoral college votes on who will be President in December. So what’s going on in November?
