In the year 2000, the presidential election between Al Gore and George Bush was held. Bush won the electoral colleges’ vote, but Gore won the popular vote meaning, that he would’ve won if the Electoral College did not exist and the election was decided on purely the popular vote. How the Electoral vote affects the final outcome of an election can cause a candidate to win or lose.
In most states, the Electoral College votes are based on which candidate wins the most votes. This is called the winner take all system, which is when the state takes the popular vote from the people to decide which candidate gets the electoral votes for that state. Basically, if the candidate wins more votes in let’s say California, that candidate will win all 55 of its electoral votes.
Each state’s electoral vote is decided using the winner takes all system except Maine and Nebraska. In these two states proportional representation is how electoral votes are decided. The electoral votes in these states are allocated per congressional district; the two remaining senatorial based votes are determined by majority vote. In Maine for instance, there are two congressional districts plus the two Senatorial based votes totaling four. If one districts popular vote is for candidate A and the others is for candidate B, then each candidate would receive one vote, with the popular candidate based on the whole state’s vote, getting the other two votes. If A wins the popular vote, he would get three votes and candidate B would get the other one.
During the election process more attention is usually given to the larger states, due to the Electoral College votes and the population. In the Electoral College the more people you have in a state creates more congressional districts, which in turn means more electoral votes. Since the candidates are competing for more electoral votes, this causes them to give more attention to the states with the most population and votes. As we saw in the 2000 election, Gore won the popular vote but lost because the Electoral College votes went to Bush. The proportion of Electoral votes and total population is not equal and in the election more states went to the republican candidate, giving Bush more electoral votes when the United States as a whole actually voted for Gore. I do not think that there should be an Electoral College or perhaps it should be changed to the proportional representation, because candidate should get elected by a majority vote, which is a fairer determination in our democratic society.
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