The Electoral College.  When you hear those two very specific words what comes to mind? Maybe the recent presidential election or maybe a system which you do not know very much about.  Well welcome to The Electoral College: Crash Course.  In the next five minutes, I am going to tell you everything you need to know about the mysterious and always somewhat troubling system that is used every four years.

The Electoral College is a somewhat confusing system.  It was established by the founding fathers when they drafted the Constitution because as many of you know the founding fathers were a group of old rich white men who were entitled and believed that they knew what was best for the emerging country.  They did not trust the American people to be informed about the candidates in the Presidential election and believed the people could be easily swayed.  Because of this they created a system in which the people of the US are not allowed to vote directly for the President.  In recent years, the direct election of Senators by the people was guaranteed by the 17^th Amendment ratified in 1913.  In light with this recent legislation it only seems appropriate that the Electoral College be changed or abolished to include the direct election of the President.

For those of you who are not familiar with specifically how the Electoral College works here is a basic break down of the system. It consists of 538 electors where a candidate must get 270 electoral votes to become the president of the US.  Each candidate running has their own set of electors and the number corresponds with how many electoral votes one state is allocated.  The number of electoral votes is determined by population.  One electoral vote is given for every House Member a state has and then each state gets two electoral votes for the states Senators.  For example, California has 53 House of Representative members plus 2 for the Senators.  This means that California has 55 electoral votes and is currently the most populated state in the US and therefore currently has the most electoral votes followed by Texas which only has 38.

When you vote for a candidate you are actually voting for their electors which are usually nominated by the party of the candidate.  During December, the electors of the winning candidate in your state cast their votes for President and Vice President which are counted when Congress is called back into session on January 6^th.

The real problem with the Electoral College is not the system but the way in which it is applied.  By this I mean if a specific candidate wins the popular vote then rightfully they should therefore also win the Presidency but this is not always the case.  The system was designed to give the small states a say in the election but this argument is flawed.  If the election was a direct election where the popular vote determines the winner then it would not matter if a state is big or small all the votes would be combined to create the total and therefore determine the winner.  This is not an advocating for the change of the Electoral College in light of the resent election.  The election brought up the issue and yes I voted and have my own political ideologies but they are irrelevant.  I am advocating for the changing of a system that is long outdated to create a more fair America.  If a candidate wins the popular vote that means that the majority of the people in the US want that specific candidate to be the President and to me it seems unfair to deny the majority of the people who voted their winner because of a flawed system. In changing the Electoral College the people can finally be given their right to directly vote for the commander and chief the United States.