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The Affects of the Electoral College on the Significance and Legitimacy of American Voting

In the 1996 United States presidential election, only 49 percent of the voting age population cast a ballot (Federal Election Committee). Only 56 percent of whites voted, followed by 50 percent of African American, and only 27 percent of Hispanics (Federal Election Committee). With such low voter turnout, one must wonder about the cause of this epidemic. Voting is a right that Americans once took great pride in. The right to vote allows Americans not only say in who runs the government, but also affects their freedom and future. Or does it? The United States uses an institution called the Electoral College, not the vote of the people, to choose the president. In this system, each state Electoral College receives a certain numbers of votes. All of these votes go to the candidate who receives the majority in that particular state (Federal Election Committee). Whichever candidate receives the most electoral votes nationally wins (Federal Election Committee). So, it is not truly the people who decide who will lead them. In the United States, a supposed democracy, the Electoral College renders individual voting meaningless.One reason that the Electoral College has contributed to the apathy of American voters is that it does not allow citizens a real say in presidential elections. According to the Constitution, the people are the source of government power, yet they are not permitted to choose their leader. In presidential elections, individual votes are not even counted (Citizens for True Democracy). The only voice that voters have is through the election of delegates to the electoral colleges (Federal Election Commission). The electoral colleges also cause the individual vote to become pointless by using a winner-takes-all system in many states (Citizens for True Democracy). In these systems, all of a states electoral votes go to the candidate who gathered a majority vote. In many elections, candidates who didnt receive the ...

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