by Jerrie Lynn South-DeRose

Created on: November 03, 2008   Last Updated: December 29, 2010

The billions of dollars spent by the presidential campaigns of both parties in states like Ohio, Florida, and Texas that have a large number of electoral votes create a campaign disparity that has resulted in the disenfranchisement and disillusionment of millions of potential voters over the years. Those electoral votes are a major factor in determining which candidate will inherit the White House, therefore this is where the candidates focus their campaigns and spend their time and money. Is it any wonder that millions of voters feel they are invisible and that the fabric of democracy is threatened?

The impact of the electoral college in those states, and the fact that it is the electoral votes that tip the balance towards one candidate or another, makes it difficult for voters like myself, to have their votes count. For instance, Kansas, the state I reside in, not only has a small number of electoral votes, the state is dominated by right wing social and economic conservatives who rarely vote outside the GOP. My vote counts for little since the electoral votes always go to the Republican presidential candidate.

Millions of voters of both parties, along with independents like myself, are cheated of the opportunity to actually help elect the person who will run this country for the next four, and possibly the next eight years because of the electoral college. It is not surprising that so much of the public, no matter the age, are disenfranchised with the political process and the candidates who speak so eloquently of how they care about "all Americans". It is hard, if not impossible, to feel that a candidate speaks to issues of importance to everyone when those candidates spend most of their time and money in the states with the most electoral votes.

Now that millions of Americans have cable and satellite television, the Internet, cell phones with messaging and access to the web, and other technology where they can access non partisan and government websites to see national and state voting records, committee positions, and even read a large cross section of newspapers to find out how the candidates stand on issues, the electoral college should be abolished so that the individual votes cast count as equally as those voters residing in states with the most electoral votes. And maybe, just maybe, if the electoral college were abolished the candidates would visit every state and include us in their dialogue.

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