The Electoral College and the End of Democracy by Kira
Kiraof State College's entry into Varsity Tutor's July 2017 scholarship contest
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The Electoral College and the End of Democracy by Kira - July 2017 Scholarship Essay
In the 18th century the United States was young, communication was difficult, and most people lived inherently local lives. This made Presidential elections very strenuous. The Founding Fathers feared what the locals did not know about national needs and many Southerners felt they had a right to count their non-voting slaves in the elections. The electoral college was built to remove upper government from direct democracy and appease Southern states’ population arguments. It was not a system that believed in education, something that TED prides itself on. If I would be handed the chance to give TED Talk, I know I would take that opportunity to educate people on the truth behind the inequality in the electoral college.
The electoral college has proven to be a poor representation of the general public. Citizens of one low-populated state are given more electoral college members per person than a highly populated state. Every citizen in New York has to recognize that their vote will never be as powerful as a vote in Wyoming, despite both being citizens of the same country. Also, because of the winner-takes-all systems that 48 of the 50 states use, a Republican in California and a Democrat in Texas might as well not vote because their vote will never make any difference. Modern American citizens did nothing to earn useless votes so why is the system the United States is using giving them no chance?
The electoral college a truly an outdated and undemocratic system that needs to be reworked to benefit a single American citizen, but with the way it works, the winner of the presidency is the one who benefitted from the system this time so no changes will ever be made. If the general public knew the truth, knew the facts behind the innate racism and general inequality of the electoral college system, then maybe they would fight. TED allows for that wide spreading of ideas - that is their actual motto. From working at TEDx events in university, I have expanded my world like no one could imagine. Millions of people have no power in presidential elections and what better way to teach them than through the power of TED and spoken word.