The Electoral College
There have been 58 presidential elections in the United States. The first was in 1788, and the most recent in 2016. Five times (8.6% of the time) the winner of the U.S. presidential election did not receive the most votes, thanks to the Electoral College.
1824
| Andrew Jackson | 151,271 | 41.4% | Democratic-Republican |
| John Quincy Adams | 113,122 | 30.9% | Democratic-Republican |
1876
| Samuel J. Tilden | 4,286,808 | 50.9% | Democratic |
| Rutherford B. Hayes |
4,034,142 | 47.9% | Republican |
1888
| Grover Cleveland | 5,534,488 | 48.6% | Democratic |
| Benjamin Harrison |
5,443,892 | 47.8% | Republican |
2000
| Al Gore | 51,009,810 | 48.4% | Democratic |
| George W. Bush |
50,462,412 | 47.9% | Republican |
2016
| Hillary Clinton | 65,853,516 | 48.2% | Democratic |
| Donald Trump |
62,984,825 | 46.1% | Republican |
The Electoral College needs to change or be abolished, and the national popular vote should determine who is elected president. Why should “winner takes all” in each state continue to prevail? This isn’t a ball game. As it is now, a candidate gets 100% of the electoral votes for a state whether they got 80% of the popular vote or 50.5%. Each state’s electoral votes should be apportioned based on the number of popular votes each candidate got. Every vote should count equally, no matter what state you live in.
Proportional Representation
In the U.S. Congress and the state legislatures, if the Green Party, for example, is supported by 10% of the electorate, then they should have 10% of the representation in the legislative body. Proportional representation ensures that all popular viewpoints in the electorate have representation in our government, and prevents any one political party from ever having too much power.
Ballot Measures
Rather than always voting for people who are supposed to represent you and your interests, but often do not, wouldn’t you rather vote on the issues themselves? We should all have a chance to vote more often on ballot measures, even if they are only directional in nature. I have no doubt, for example, that we would have stricter weapons laws in this country if we the people were ever given the opportunity to directly vote on the matter.