Essay Contest Winners
 Misbah
Aslam
The Barstow School
"Should the Electoral College Be Abolished?"
The Electoral College has existed in the United States for over two hundred
years. If this system was incompatible with representative republican
government, it would have been abolished. There are many benefits to having and
keeping an Electoral College; it promotes a federalist system and provides
incentive for candidates to campaign on a larger geographic scale. However,
there is plenty of room for reform. Better representation of the views of
smaller groups of people can be achieved through using a district system.
Within the federalist nature of the United States’ government, certain political
powers are reserved by the states. If the Electoral College was abolished,
states would be denied important political control necessary to uphold this
delicate balance of power and prevent an overly centralized government.
Furthermore, the Electoral College greatly contributes to the cohesiveness of
our nation. A candidate must have a wide geographic distribution of support in
order to win an election.
Presently, only the majority of people within a given state see their candidate
receive electoral votes. Therefore, in order to elect individuals that truly
represent the will of all the people, the winner-take-all system must be
eliminated and replaced with the district system—where every electoral vote
depends on a popular vote within each congressional district. Also, the two
electoral votes corresponding to a state’s senators should be split based on the
percentage of votes each candidate wins in that state. Therefore, the Electoral
College should continue to exist—as long as it is amended.
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