American Democracy
The Electoral College as it currently functions is a way of getting around the "popular vote" -- as Underhill (2012) notes in "Changing Up the Electoral College?" However, Gregg (2011) puts an entirely different spin on the Electoral College by viewing it as "a compromise" between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist agendas that went into forming the Constitution (p. 34). Gregg asserts that the Electoral College allows special representatives to select after a republican process (direct voting) the executive. In other words, it combines popular vote with representative vote. Essentially, the popular vote is limited to states and does not count for the nation as a whole. The individual winner of a state's popular vote is assigned electoral votes -- and while one state may have many more people/voters than another -- these numbers are only represented by the electoral votes when it comes time to choosing the national winner of the executive office.
I am not in support of the current Electoral College because I think it denies Americans the right to a truly national popular vote. By limiting the popular vote process to the states, it ensures that more populated states will have less sway in the national election. But since it is a national election and not a state election, the popular vote should be counted nationwide, not just within state borders. The proposed changes by...
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