Votes for the president of the United States are counted each election in two ways, the popular vote and the Electoral College. The popular vote is the people's vote, which allows our democratic nation to vote for their leader themselves, and the Electoral College is dependent upon the popular vote, and casts electoral votes based on the number of Representatives and Senators each state has in Congress (Source One). People have consistently debated over whether or not this was a fair election process, due to the fact that the people's votes do not directly go to the president. Because of this, many people want the Electoral College to be gone, and people have attempted to abolish it in the past. The Electoral College should be abolished and the US should adopt the popular vote system as their only system because we live in a democratic nation, the current electoral voting process may not represent the popular vote, and it's a more fair system.

As citizens of the United States of America, we depend on the fact that we live in a free nation that values our justice, liberty, and voice. Included within our voice, we also depend on our democracy, that allows us to have say in who runs our country and how. It's important that we take advantage of this voice we have in the government, and it's also important we are represented fairly within it. When we depend on electors from the Electoral College to vote for who our states popular votes went to, they may not be doing that. They ultimately can decide who they are voting for, and if they decide to vote for the opponent, no one can stop them. It's very easy for them to betray our trust without our awareness (Source Two). Source Three also states that "that trust is rarely betrayed," which makes it clear that although uncommon, there have been incidents in the past where the citizens have been represented unfairly. In a democratic nation, we should have true sovereignty and be able to cast our popular vote, and know that it is being counted and included in the final say of our leader.

Overall, the Electoral Vote may not represent the Popular vote. As mentioned, there have been incidents in the past that have indicated the truthfulness of this statement. For example, in 1960 John F. Kennedy was almost opposed by unfair elections due to our country's people being misrepresented (Source Two). Even if the popular vote of our state goes one way, the "'faithless electors have occasionally refused to vote for their party's candidate and cast a deciding vote for whomever they please..." (Source Two). The electors are unreliable and may go one way just because they please to do so while leaving the faithful citizens in the dust with their decisions and votes meaning nothing. The popular vote system would better represent the people than the unreliable Electoral College system we have now.

The popular vote system is a more fair system, one of many reasons being that it would eliminate the advantage large and "swing" states have over others. Currently, "swing" states are being given more attention to be the candidates because the candidates realize that the fate of their presidency may be dependent upon these states (Sources Two and Three). Since the Swing states are the ones who's votes can go either way, the candidates spend more time with these states in order to insure their likelihood to achieve the states electoral votes. This is not a fair process because the other states are not getting to know the candidates like these states do. The same thing goes for large states. Since the number of electoral votes you have is dependent upon population, the larger states have more electors/representatives. Therefore, the presidential candidates want to achieve as many electoral votes as possible and will make sure to appeal to the larger states, leaving the smaller states at a disadvantage due to misrepresentation. The popular vote system would take everyone into account evenly, and therefore represent everyone fairly, and make for a better voting system.

All in all, the current Electoral College system is unfair, misrepresented, and unappealing to a democratic nation. The system should be abolished for all of these reasons, and allow the popular voting system to come in to play. The popular vote system would allow each citizen to be represented equally, and create a more level and fair environment. It's important that a democratic nation feels like one, and that we are all represented fairly, and there's no better way to do so than by being our own representatives.    