To whom it may concern:

In today's society there is neverending controversy over a million things. Suprisingly, a lot of these controversies are centered around one single topic: Politics. One of the most prominent arguments is the one surrounding the Electoral College and its possible abolishment. How the process works is when a state votes on their candidate the state is actually electing the Electors. Most states take a winner-take-all system where the majority of votes for a candidate would determine that all the electors will vote for that candidate. Only a few states split up to Electors based on votes, and then delegate a certain number of them to one candidate and a certain number of them to the other. The electors vary in amount by the number of members in its Congressional delegation. The Electoral College is made up of exactly 538 electors, and a majority of 270 is required to elect the president.

Personally, I would argue in favor of the Electoral College and keeping it for numerous reasons. One of them being that whomever is elected, will be everybody's president. What I mean by this is that no one region can overwhelm any other regions through popular vote and elect the candidate of their choice. If you took the south-west region of the United States, there would be California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, etc. Texas and California alone hold a great amount of America's population, and could possibly overwhelm the other states with popular vote and vote in the president of their choosing. With the Electoral College in place it allows to even the playing field and avoid run-off elections providing a more fair representation of the United States votes.

Another reason is that, the candidates can then be elected honestly, by people who listen thoughtfully. With the Electoral College, there are swing states. These states use the winner-take-all-method, and are normally a toss up. Most competing candidates focus on these toss-up states to try and secure the vote for them, and as some would argue, this prevents candidates from visiting smaller states, all becuase they want the most votes, but in truth, the candidates are vistiting the swing states becuase they are thoughtful voters. The positive thing with swing states are that the voters within them, know they are a part of the deciding vote of the president. This means that they pay much closer attention to the election and things happening within it, and the candidates stances on many different topics. This allows voters in swing states to vote fairly and informatively, without over bearing politcal part bias.

On the other side of the argument are those who want to abolish the Electoral College. They pose many reasons for why they want this such as what is often called the disaster factor. This reason is based on the election of 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush, when Al Gore had recieved the majority of the individual votes but once taken to the Electoral College, Bush won with 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266. This incident angered many people, who wondered how and it brought up the question: Can electors defy the will of the people? The answer is yes, but it's high unlikely, and very rare, if ever. Electors are made of a parties committee, and sometimes the candidates themselves. They are picked by the State Legislature, so they obviously contain knowledge in politics and are trusted by the state government to do there duty as appointed. Some argue that the incident in 2000 between Gore and Bush was a freak accident. It's quite rare and, although it has been quite close before, no such incident had occured since 1888, when the Electoral College was created, or anytime after.

In Conclusion, in favor of the Electoral College staying as it is, it would keep the country voting fairly. It would also avoid run-off elections and a region overloading the popular vote, due to the vast quantity of population. Keeping the College intact would keep citizens in swing states interested during the election, becasue they know they are the deciding vote. While aruments against the Electoral College are many, they aren't substanial enough to completly abolish a process that has worked successfully for over a hundred years and counting.

Sincerely,

Concerned Citizen    