The Electoral College: Are the voters being recognized

The Electoral College system is one that is one that is filled with controversy in many ways. Everyone seems to feel differently about the impact it has on present day elections. In 2000, the final elections were between Bush and Gore. Although Gore received the popular vote, Bush was elected into office simply because he had the Electoral College vote. The flaw within the system as Rob Richie stated on C-span is that during the elections in 2000, 3/5^th of all candidate visits remained primarily within four swing states, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The other states seem to be put off because of their consistency of being either primarily republican or Democratic. Primaries will never be held in New York City because time after time we vote in democratic representatives.  The only purpose we serve is as fuel, also known as: the cash flow for the candidates. Candidates zoom in on certain states and secure their electoral votes in those states, focusing less on their popular vote. Shouldn’t it be that the president is chosen based on the popular vote? In my opinion, the electoral system is in favor of the candidates with the most resources and money, making them capable of campaigning themselves at a maximum level; but where’s the genuine factor?  Many states are put off as a result of the electoral system and people are feeling left out or as if their vote doesn’t count. Just because New york is generally is a democratic state, doesn’t mean that everyone living in the state is a democrat. This in turn discourages republicans from voting in New York. Major states have this problem primarily because they seem to be set in stone as to what side they’re on, for the most part. Surely enough, the “Popoular Vote” system may be somewhat of a failure as well. It is said that many of the smaller states votes would be overlooked and outnumbered by the bigger states. Proportional Representation voting may be a good solution to the Electoral College, in which the votes for each state are fairly split.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/BeginnningReading/PRsystems.htm