To many young voters and political commentators, the 2016 presidential election is considered to be an upset of Republican candidate Donald Trump defeating the expected winner of that election, Hillary Clinton. But despite the unexpected results, the previous election has happened before in 2000 election.
In the Election of 2000, Texas Governor George W. Bush narrowly beat Vice President Al Gore. But one thing that stood from there was that technically voters chose Al Gore; however, Bush won the presidency.
This was done as a result of the Electoral College. Aside from Nebraska and Maine, many states have a winner-take-all system. And while the recent election has reunited to age-old efforts to abolish the Electoral College. In the last five presidential elections, the President was elected by both the already established institution and the people of the United States three out of five times. Now while I can observe that this system is an archaic relic that the Founding Fathers have established. And as of now, immediately abolishing the Electoral College is a far stretch to make the system more democratic. One way to do that is to allocate how states vote based on how the public voted, and splitting the electoral votes accordingly.
Now while this piece might be seen as some thin-skinned liberal who’s butt-hurt that Hillary didn’t win, a part of my position comes from the concern I have for friends and family members with more conservative views than my own. Now, I live in Massachusetts. To anyone who follows politics will know that Massachusetts is considered a “blue state”; both of our senators are Democrats. As well as all nine members of Congress. And the last time that the Commonwealth voted for a Republican in a presidential election was back in 1984. And as this change has been made, many of the Republican voters are basically tuned out, compared to the outnumbering Democratic voters. In the case of the 2012 election, the eleven Electoral votes would have been split in a 6-5 ratio, with six electoral votes going to Barack Obama and five votes to Mitt Romney.
The Founder Fathers who established the foundation of this country and were flawed, but brilliant men. And those men have been forever remembered for shaping the basis of America, the Constitution is more malleable. While Electoral College has been part of the democratic system for years, it should be amended, like this country’s Constitution.