The founding fathers established the electoral college in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the president by a vote in Congress and election by the popular vote of the citizens. It consist of 538 electors. The electoral college may have served its purpose in the past, but in todays world, it's outdated, irrational, and unfair to voters. Over

60

percent of voters say they would prefer a direct election over the kind we have now.

As with a few other things in the constitution, the electoral college is outdated. It is widely regarded as an anachronism,

a thing that seems to belong to the past and not fit in the presen t, a non-democratic method of selecting a president that ought to be overruled by declaring the candidate who recieves the most populaar votes the winner. The electoral college is very biased because the presidential candidates or a party's central commitee can choose the electors which may cause them to vote unaccording to the majority vote.

The most worrying is the prospect of a tie in the electoral vote. In that case, the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, where state delegations vote on the president. Because each state only gets one vote, the single representative from Wyoming would have as much say as the 55 representatives from California. Most states have a "winner-take-all" system which could easily throw off the vote and make it swing in the wrong direction and thus, against the voters popular vote. This makes the electoral college irrational.

Lastly, the electoral college is just unfair. Not only could it be corrupted by bridery, but because of the winner-take-all in each state, cnadidates don't spend time in states they know they have no chance of winning, focusing only on the tight races in the "swing" states. During the 2000 campaign, seventeen states didn't see the candidates at all.

In conclusion, the electoral college is outdated, irrational, and unfair. The best arguements for it are mostly assertions without much basis in reality. As Bob Doe said: Abolish the electoral college!    