The Electoral College is an idea originally created by the founding fathers and eventually modified into a system adopted by the country to fairly represent all states in national elections. The original idea was to make sure small, less populated states like Rhode Island, Wyoming, and the Dakotas can still make a difference in these elections. Now, if this were the main objective of the electoral college today, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but in regards to current elections, the electoral college hasn’t been doing its job. National nominees still only spend campaign time in the larger populated states, especially swing states like Florida.

The majority of every state’s delegates goes to the nominee who receives the popular vote in that state which means a voter in say, California, which has 55 delegates and is a Democratic state, may vote Republican, but in the long run their vote will be thrown away and all 55 delegates go to the Democratic nominee. This is the same situation in the majority of states with constant voting records. The problem with this is that less populated states get left out in campaign experiences and other more populated states get bombarded with events and annoying phone calls at dinner time.

Problems in past elections have influenced many opinions about the Electoral College system. One of those major national elections is the 2000 Presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. President Bush ended up winning the election because of his victories in states with more Electoral College votes. But throughout the entire campaign season, the popular vote seemed to bounce back and forth between the two nominees. Ultimately Al Gore won the popular vote, beating President Bush by around 500,000 votes, but because Bush received more votes through the Electoral College, he won the presidency.

This also seems to be a possible problem in the upcoming 2012 presidential election between Republican nominee Mitt Romney and incumbent Democrat President Barack Obama. While all major polls show a neck and neck race between the two nominees, according to electoral college polls, President Obama is winning by almost 90 electoral votes.

Most states have the option of assigning all of their votes to one nominee or splitting up their perspective votes to opposed delegate officials that assign their delegate vote at the national convention. This is a good option for states that want to make sure their votes are distributed properly amongst the available nominees that represent the state’s voters. Recently this was proposed as a threat for the Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Across the nation, Ron Paul supporters have received numerous delegate positions for the Republican Convention where they will announce the official nomination. Former Governor Romney has already received the necessary delegates for the nomination but the presence of Congressman Paul supporters may shake up some influence on the nomination. Although it is not a prominent threat, Paul supporters will make an appearance trying to execute the importance of a united party and stress the understanding that there is a large presence of moderate Republicans who are not willing to sit around and allow the Tea Party to take over.

Our nation has evolved since its beginnings in the Constitution. The original objective of the Electoral College was logical and democratic, making sure every American could be heard even in the smallest states. Our population is growing now and considering our current national economic situation, this is a very important election to all Americans and everyone wants their voice to be heard. The Electoral College use to represent our country accurately, but our melting pot of a country is changing every election, growing towards a challenging change of the Electoral College. The most accurate system of voting is to include every vote in the results to make sure the nation is satisfied with their leader. I want my vote to count, but the way the system is now, I would need to move to a state that primarily votes for the political party I support. But I don’t want to have to do that— I want to live and vote in any state I want and be sure my opinion counts toward the future of our country.