Question

To avoid controversial outcomes in presidential elections, should the United States do away with the Electoral College? Would presidential elections be improved by a national popular vote?  

Answer 1

Electoral College has it's own advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

The founding fathers created the concept of electoral college so that uneducated and uninformed voters could not sway the elections and the election of the President was sought to be placed in the hands of educated and well informed people. The founders wanted to avoid oppression of the minority and prevent the majority from enforcing some sort of unjust policies on the general population.

Also, states having huge populations would influence the elections in a greater way and the electoral college was a way to avoid that. The founders wanted to ensure that all states and all parts of the country were involved in the election of the President ensuring that the Presidential candidates would give equal attention to all parts of the country and would ensure equal and adequate development and attention to all parts of the country and no President would ignore certain states or parts of the country.

The founding fathers, through the electoral college wanted to ensure that there was a clear winner. The winner of the popular vote has lost the electoral college only five times in the history of the system.

Disadvantages:

The electoral college ignores the will of the people by just allowing 538 people to choose the President of the country. A recent example of 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the electoral college and in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college to George W Bush.

The electoral college gives tremendous importance to the so called swing states and these small states hold the power to sway the election even though the country votes the other way.

It can be stated that the reasons for which the founding fathers founded the electoral college are no longer relevant today. Voters are much more educated than in the past and are better informed thanks to technology and the internet.

The members of the electoral college today are elected along political lines and they are expected to vote for the political party to which they are affiliated and they are not entitled to form their own opinions about political candidates.

Perhaps, the electoral college should be revisited with certain changes and amendments and if necessary, abolished taking into consideration changing times.