Transition statement: There are many reasons why the Electoral College’s all-or-nothing policy is not the best option for choosing our highest governmental positions.
I. We will have 3 Problems that the Electoral College process creates.
A. The Electoral College process is not allowing every vote to matter in the election.
1. For example, InfoPlease, a website voted “most reliable information” in 2009 stated that in the 2000 Presidential Election, Al Gore won the presidential election by 500,000 votes by the American people, but he lost the election because he lost the Electoral College by 5 votes (“Presidential” par. 1).
2. In this same election, Ralph Nader received about 3,000,000 votes, yet did not obtain a single vote from the Electoral College voters (“Presidential” par. 1).
3. With this process, the President and Vice President of the United States are not picked by the people; they are picked by the 538 Electoral College voters. Since almost 3,500,000 votes were not even represented by this process in 2000, it is faulty. In history, the popular vote has been disregarded four times now in U.S. Elections, so we should stop the Electoral College process before the next election (Walbert par. 20).
B. Each states votes count differently, which causes unequal representation.
1. Electoral Vote Ratios are different in all states. When you divide the number of voters of a state by the number of Electoral votes the state receives, you obtain the voters per electoral vote ratio. In California, this ratio is lower than the ratio in Alaska, meaning that the each Alaskan resident’s vote is more important than each Californian resident’s vote.
2. This process favors small states. Many large states are not given the amount of electoral votes than they should. According the Learn NC, University of North Carolina’s Education Website, Wyoming is allowed 3 electoral votes, but California, that has 70 times Wyoming’s population, only has 55 votes (Walbert par. 26). So, if you do the math with these two states, for this to be a fair process, California should have to have more than 200 electoral votes.
C. The electoral vote is an all or nothing process, which wastes a person’s vote, time, and efforts.
1. In 2000, Al Gore received 49.0002% of the Florida’s popular vote, and George W. Bush received 49.0008% of the Florida’s popular votes; however, all 25 Electoral votes went to Bush because he won by a .0006% margin (“Presidential” par. 1). This means that because of 500 votes, 3,000,000 Floridian citizens’ votes were disregarded.
Transition statement: Instead of actively disenfranchising the votes of millions of Americans, we should embrace these votes, and allow these to be counted for the Presidential Race.
II. Plan – Our plan is to have the U.S. Government abolish the Electoral College as it stands.
A. The most democratic and beneficial way to count votes for the Presidential Race is to amend the Constitution and establish rules that allow the popular vote of Americans to chose the President and Vice-President.
1. The U.S. Government should install an amendment that would state, “In order for this country to be truly democratic, we must allow every vote for the President and Vice President to be beneficially used and quantifiably be counted.”
2. The U.S. Government should also allow every single citizen’s vote to be counted and added to create a plurality vote for the country. Whenever there is a plurality of popular votes received for one set of candidates, those candidates will become President and Vice President.
Transition statement: There should be no one voting for the President and the Vice President of the United States other than the all of the citizens of this great country.
III. Advantages (2) – The advantages of this plan will allow each and every citizen to be able to have a say in their government.
A. It will create a better democracy in this country.
1. The Online Webster Dictionary defines Democracy as a “government by the people.” By administering our plan, it allows every person’s vote to be heard. The votes of the second and third place candidate of each state will not be lost, but it will be added up with all the other votes of the nation’s citizens. Essentially, with our plan, everyone’s vote does count towards the two highest officials of the country.
B. Each person’s vote will count equally.
1. Everyone’s individual vote will equal one vote for the President and Vice-President of the United States. No more Electoral College Vote per resident ratios, that we found to be faulty anyway, each state’s citizens vote will count equally to all other forty-nine states citizens.
2. The President and Vice President will no longer be selected by 538 votes, it will be chosen by the millions of American voters that took time out of their day for their vote to count. As Mark Kettle from the Washington Post that was published December 22, 2008, in the 2000 Election it was like “total number of people who voted in the state of Idaho” didn’t get to vote (Kettle par. 5).
Today, we have presented why this plan is the most beneficial and democratic way for people to cast thier ballot for President and Vice President. Therefore, on the team that will win this debate, I am proud to ask for the popular vote of this class.
Work Cited
Kettle, Mark. “The Most Unfair U.S. Election Ever.” Washington Post 22 December 2008. 19 March 2009 < >.
“Presidential Election of 2000, Electoral and Popular Vote Summary.” InfoPlease. 23 March 2009 < >.
Walbert, David. “Does my vote count? Understanding the electoral college.” LearnNC. 21 March 2009 < >.
