When someone in America votes for a president, they are not voting for a candidate — they are voting for someone who will cast their vote for them. The Electoral College is full of delegates who do the actual voting, and they don’t technically have to vote for the candidate the people favor.
Doug McAdam, a Stanford professor of sociology who studies American politics, argues that four out of five Americans exercised no real electoral voice in the 2012 presidential election because of the Electoral College.
With the current system the only voters determining the outcome of a presidential race reside in a handful of battleground states, which makes up merely 20 percent of the country’s total population. For the rest of the population, voting for a minority presidential party can be an exercise in political powerlessness.
In 2012, only 54 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. Eliminating the Electoral College could empower people to actually vote because they would be directly impacting the outcome of the election. The use of a popular vote system could also encourage more political parties to participate in the election because then there would be a fair chance of winning.
The Electoral College seems to set the stage for a small group of people making all the decisions in other areas of government. Professors involved in a study at Princeton University and Northwestern University found the U.S. government now represents the rich and powerful, not the average citizen. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination, meaning a small economic elite holds the most power, and Biased Pluralism, which says policies tend to tilt toward the wishes of corporations and business.
The current American political system does not lean toward theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, meaning government by the people is interpreted as government by the majority of the people, or Majoritarian Pluralism, which says a majority of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society and has the right to make decisions that affect the society.
Basically, America is now an oligarchy, which is government or control by a small group of people — not a democracy. Still, Americans enjoy elements of democracy such as regular elections and freedom of speech and association — and yet when considering the Electoral College, the U.S. is technically no longer a democracy.
The current system also results in lobbyists and special interest groups influencing the decision makers.
In 2009, 13,500 lobbyists and interest groups spent $5.3 billion to influence Congress. The American people’s trust in Congress has declined from 42 percent in 1973 to just 7 percent in 2014 according to a Gallup poll.
Former President Jimmy Carter said, “Now, it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president.”
What is the solution? Abolishing the Electoral College and changing to the popular vote would be a good start, but perhaps the most important thing to remember is the amount of influence and potential each individual person has.
Just because someone’s presidential vote may not have much impact doesn’t mean their voice isn’t meaningful. Every person has the ability to impact the world. Every decision is a vote.
By choosing to take action and be the change they want to see, Americans can change the country more than any president ever could. The solution to the problem is not found out there, the solution is inside everyone.
Andrew Brand can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @theandrewbrand