Dear Mr. / Mrs. President,

When I first found out about voting I thought that the people could choose our own president but then just recently I found out about how the Electoral College chooses our president and there have been many cases when the elector doesn’t put their vote for the person that has popular vote in their state.

The Electoral College shouldn’t be kept since in the U.S have the tech to count the votes of the people and also there have been presidents elected even though they didn’t have the popular vote.

In the U.S people have the tech in order to count the number of votes that are cast by the people. When the founding fathers created the electoral college America was made up of 13 states that would be suspicious of any central national government. The people in America back then were spread up and down thousands of miles so campaigning would be ineffective. Also popular vote was rejected since they feared that since the people wouldn’t get sufficient information about their candidates they would just vote for someone who was in the same religion as them or lived in the same state as them. Also it was hard for them to collect all the votes since they would have to send the information about the vote everywhere and collect the votes from up and down the whole America which proved to be difficult without advanced communication. Nowadays popular vote is possible through advanced technology so that people would know what the candidates would do for their country if they were elected and also you can collect the votes easily too. So in theory there is no need for the Electoral College.

The electors of the Electoral College doesn’t always vote for the person that the people of their state think is best suited and also there are many cases when candidates don’t have popular vote but they still become president. There have been numerous cases of electors voting on personal initiative. There have been 157 faithless voters since the founding of the Electoral College. If you're wondering what are faithless voters they are Electoral College members who don’t vote for their designated candidate. 71 of these cases were caused by the candidate dying before the day of the Electoral College vote, 3 faithless voters denied to vote, and the remaining 82 electoral votes cast their votes to their personal preference. Despite this the members of the Electoral College are still not required to vote for their designated candidate. There have been 4 cases of presidents not winning in popular vote but still becoming president. In 1824 John Quincy Adams won became president without winning the electoral vote or popular vote, Andrew Jackson even beat him in electoral votes and popular votes but they were both below 131 electoral votes needed to become president. The decision went to the house of representatives which decided that Adams would become president. Then in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral votes by 1 vote but lost popular vote by 250,000, in 1888, Benjamin Harrison won the electoral votes but lost popular vote by 90,000, and also in 2000, George W. Bush won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote by 540,000. So as you can see presidents can win the electoral vote but not win popular vote and still become president. 

The Electoral College enhances the minority’s interests but maybe too much since the smaller state’s votes count for more and even though the electoral college is leaning towards smaller states candidates don’t go to smaller states still since it is easier to take the votes from states that are swing states. A vote in a smaller state will count for more than a vote in a larger state. There are 538 electoral votes and 318 million people in the U.S so in theory every 591 thousand people get 1 electoral vote but that doesn’t happen. Ohio should get 20 votes since they have 11.5 million people but Ohio only gets 18 since every state has 3 votes to start with then the rest are distributed by population. This means that smaller states would get the 2 electoral votes that were taken off of Ohio. California is missing the most electoral votes it is voting 10 electoral votes. 1 person that lives in Wyoming’s vote is worth 4 votes from people that live in California. The Electoral College also doesn’t make candidates care about small states since only 18 states were visited by a candidate and only 2 of them had small populations. The Electoral College actually makes the candidates visit the states that are swing states since it is a winner take all and it is easier to win by a few votes than a few million votes. 

The Electoral College which supposedly helps smaller states get more attention from the candidates doesn’t and also in smaller states’ votes count for more than larger states’ votes. The Electoral College members don't always vote for their designated candidate and it is also possible to win even though you didn’t win popular vote. In the U.S we already have sufficient tech to count popular vote so we don’t have to have the Electoral College anymore, removing the Electoral College will enable the U.S to flow more towards the people’s wills.

Sincerely,

Alan Jiang 

"Science Buzz." Arguments against the Electoral College. Science Buzz, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

By Thus failing to Accurately Reflect the. "The Electoral College - Pros and Cons." The Electoral College - Pros and Cons. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

"Argument For and Against the Electoral College." Argument For and Against the Electoral College. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

The Trouble with the Electoral College. Dir. CGPGrey. Perf. CPG Grey. Youtube, 2011. Youtube.

Kimberling, William C. "The Electoral College - Origin and History." The Electoral College - Origin and History. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

Gore, D'Angelo. "Presidents Winning Without Popular Vote." FactCheck.org. Fact Check, 24 Mar. 2008. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

"Faithless Electors - Fairvote." FairVote. FairVote, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.