We all want to feel like we play a roll and are represented in something. We all want to be protected from being controlled by an extremely radical or minority group. The electoral college helps accomplish both of these. The electoral college is made up of educated state senators and the house of representatives that vote for the president. This process of having the electoral college vote in addition to the vote of all Americans, has many positive effects for our country including facilitating a two party system, and protecting minority interests, which otherwise would not be. There are many oppositions that suggest to just we should just eliminate the electoral college altogether. It is true that it could use some modifications, but it’s complete elimination and switch to a direct election would cause more problems than solutions. The electoral college has aspects that help our nation more than hurt it and for these reasons should not be abolished.
The electoral college encourages the two party system in our government, contributing to the political stability of the nation. It is, “extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough states to have a chance of winning the presidency” because while they could win the amount of votes needed to send send their decision to the HOR, to elect their candidate, the state delegations would need to be majority over half for them. As soon as they can get over half, the party would no longer be the minority party. A third party movement could change a lot for our country and the way issues are handled; without the electoral college it is possible for any radical third party candidate to win the presidential election. If that possibility became a reality, America could take a turn for the worse. Although checks and balance could help prevent anything extreme from happening, just the fact that someone that may be supported by a great amount of people could make decisions that will support their party only and not America as a whole could divide us in such a way it would be much harder for us to reunite later down the road. The electoral college protects us from this taking place. The electoral college makes sure one of the two major political parties stay in charge, which forces third parties to either compromise to a more acceptable view point and join one of the parties or have very little chance of getting far. This also helps the two major parties because they gain more votes by taking in third parties and their supporters which will making them a more diverse group. Two bigger parties are easier to manage the many smaller parties because more parties means the votes are more spread out among groups and no single group can meet the majority requirement. The electoral college makes it easier for people to vote and for America to remain stable and avoid control by an extreme group. While the electoral college prevents extreme minority groups from taking over, they also help represent the views of minority people in rural states.
There are many minority groups whose opinions may possibly be overlooked for the opinions of the bigger, more popular groups and that would be unfair and create problems for many Americans. The electoral college heightens the representation of minority groups because, “the votes of even small minorities in a state may make the difference between winning all of that state’s electoral votes or none of that states electoral votes.” Since minority votes in some areas are somewhat over represented, they are very important to the presidential election in states with the more electoral votes. The electoral college protects the interest of minority groups because of how pivotal the minority votes are, it brings much more attention to them and the issues they want addressed. Candidates will have to appeal more to diverse groups and interests of people besides the people like themselves. This ensures that the populous states won’t dominate and overpower the entire election over the smaller states. The electoral college opens the door for minority groups to be recognized and have power in the election process in attempt to create a balance of diverse opinions. Without the electoral college the nation could divide into majority against minority, which technically could be 53% of the population against 47% of the population and cause a rise in problems like equal representation and minority protection. History shows is that when we live under mob rule, it never works out in a positive way for the minority. Although majority rule stays as an important value to America, the electoral college is a guarantee that minority opinions and interests will continue to be addressed and protected by American government. Although minority groups can greatly sway the electoral college, a single person on the electoral college usually can’t change the overall outcome of their decision.
People opposed to the electoral college, will sometime argue using the point of the risk of a faithless elector. A faithless elector is someone on the electoral college who says they will vote for the candidate from their party but switches and votes for the opposing party during the actual election process. This occurrence, happening with only, “7 such Electors in this century and as recently as 1988” is a rare one. Because this almost never happens and because there are so many votes in the electoral college, it seems like this would not affect the outcome all that much. These faithless electors should know that their sudden switch isn’t going to make that much of a difference in the long run. It is usually very obvious what the outcome of the majority vote from the electoral college will be. The solution to this shouldn’t be to completely eliminate the electoral college, but to remove those faithless electors votes from the electoral college since they wouldn’t really matter anyways.
In conclusion, the electoral college should not be abolished. The electoral college prevents radical change in government that would be cause by third party takeovers and encourages the third parties to assimilate to one of the two major parties, which helps keep America political stable. Because of how important the sway of minority groups can be in the electoral college, the interest of minority groups are taken more seriously. whereas in a direct election, the minority would be overlooked by the majority. In the electoral college, something as small as a single faithless voter will not gravely effect the outcome of the election votes and because it is so rare the solution can not be to abolish the whole electoral college, but to remove those few people from it. The electoral college grants us protection from third party movements and makes all who vote feel represented and like we are contributing to the overall success and cohesiveness of our nation.