Now that the presidential race has been decided, we should re-examine the way this particular contest is conducted in our country.
The Electoral College that we use is out of date and not equitable to all Americans. This system may have been appropriate in our nation’s early days, but for now and the future it is an unfair system and should be changed.
California is our largest state, population-wise, with approximately 38 million people and 55 electoral votes. That means there are about 690,000 people per elector in that state. In Wyoming, our least populated state, there are about 580,000 people and three electoral votes. That means there are about 193,000 people per elector.
The other 48 states and the District of Columbia have varying numbers of residents per electoral vote in-between the two extremes for California and Wyoming. What this means is that this system is not balanced and the votes of people living in lower-populated states carry more weight than those residents in larger-populated states.
The best way to get around this problem is to have a direct election for president. This way, all Americans would be treated equally in the election process and it would encourage presidential candidates to visit all states and to discuss all issues, including regional issues in all parts of our country.
No longer would we have the eight or nine so-called battleground states. No longer would candidate and media attention just be focused on those swing states with the rest of the country written off and ignored.
It should also boost voter participation in all states, because then, with direct election, every vote would count.
Henry Euler
Bayside
