by Cecilia Diaz

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: September 10, 2009

A question was raised by my teenaged daughter recently. After studying about the Electoral College, she wondered if it was a good idea to keep it or get rid of it.

The Electoral College is a group of people who represent the popular vote of the people of each state. It is the body that in reality elects the President of the United States. This body consists of the number of representatives and senators from each state. Originally, it was created to keep the public from making uninformed decisions on voting for president. Our founding fathers wanted to keep the vote focused on the abilities of the candidate and not on his popularity with the people. This group of electors was also created to give each state an equal vote depending on the total number of residents of that particular state.

When the people vote for the president, the electoral vote goes with the winning party, not the candidate himself. There have been three instances in American history where the popular vote did not match the electoral vote. The candidate who received the most votes by the people was not the same as the one who received the most votes by the Electoral College. Therefore, the Electoral College elected a President who did not win by the people's vote.

She also asked me about other parties besides the Democrat and Republican parties. Why were they not as visible in the news as the two major parties? One reason I told her was that they did not have the financial backing that the other two did. Campaigning costs are quite expensive. Then she asked about write-in candidates. The answer: they probably don't have the media coverage and are virtually unknown by the people or they don't have financial backing either. I was curious as to who she would consider a good "write-in candidate". She was not sure. She had already made her decision about who she would vote for and she has since been trying to talk me into voting for him on November 4.

She did not like the fact that the President of the United States was not really democratically elected by the people, but by a group of men and women who could choose to either go along with the popular vote of their state or not. It was all too subjective for her. She said, "Our country was set up by the people for the people. This Electoral College just isn't right!" I did not know what to say to that. I believe I will do some studying about this myself and get back to her.

Her questions made me wonder about my own political views or lack of them...and she's not old enough to drive, let alone vote yet.

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