Seeing as there are individuals out there who think the Electoral College should be abolished I thought I would try and explain how the Electoral College works and why it is important. According to the provision made by Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution, each state has a number of electors which is equal to the number of U.S. House and U.S. Senate members combined which each state has. For example, the total number of Representatives and Senators Texas has is 34 therfore Texas sends 34 electors to the Electoral College. If the majority of the population (popular vote)of Texas votes for the Republican candidate for president (which by the way has happened since Ronald Reagan was first elected in 1980) then the 34 electoral votes of Texas would go to the Republican candidate. In 1961 the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution provided that residents of D.C. could vote in presidential elections and gave D.C. 3 electoral votes which is still the number of electoral votes D.C. still has today. Now, here is why the Electoral College is so important. Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska have historically voted Republican since 1968 with the only excetion being that Montana voted democrat in 1992 (check www.270towin.com). The popular vote in metro areas tends to favor the democrats, but the popular vote in rural areas tends to favor the Republicans. The 6 states states named above are primarily rural as is reflected in the number of electoral votes each one gets(Nebraska 5, Idaho 4, Montana 3, Wyoming 3, North Dakota 3, South Dakota 3). If the Electoral College were to be abolished we would have nothing but democrats in D.C. Voters in rural areas would never have their voices heard, nor would anyone else who is conservative. If we didn't have the Electoral College the votes in whole states would not be fairly heard if the popular vote did not go to the candidate who did get a majority of votes in those states. Those who favor what the Republicans support have just as much right to have their voices heard as do those whofavor what the democrats support. For a damocracy majority rule to be successful it has to be connected with minority rights so that the majority isn't enabled to enslave the minority as Nazi Germany did to the Jews. This is what the Electoral College does. It gives those who vote for the candidate who gets fewer popular votes the chance to have their voices heard.
