Why do you pander to me if my vote means nothing out
of Texas? We choose our council men, our district attorneys, our judges, our
town sheriffs, even the Representative, Senators, and even the Governor! Presidential
victories are not won by popular vote though; they are won by electoral vote. Why
vote than? Why even pander to fellow voters? Why should President Obama be
making speeches in front of crowds when it is a known fact that the popular
vote does not matter? (And if you didn’t know, well now you do)
It’s simple. Americans have power, our power is
slow, but we have it nonetheless. From archives.gov “Is my vote for President
and Vice President meaningful in the Electoral College system?” the answer “…Yes,
within your state, your vote has a great deal of significance….We select
electors, who pledge their electoral vote to a specific candidate.” Basically a
republican or democratic elector will vote for their perspective party ticket. Now
with that in mind there are, what are called, faithless electors. These people
choose for whatever reason chooses to not vote for the person they pledged to
vote for. They usually don’t last next election. This is how we the people have
power. We choose the electors, when they don’t vote our way, we can remove them
from office. That is easier said than done. Removing a person from office
requires us, Americans, to get out and follow up on our promise. I voted for
Senator X, who then voted for President A, after he pledged a vote to President
B. Next election, Senator X, has to be removed. Here is the problem though; I
could not find any results on how our elected Representatives and Senators voted.
There are many citizens who believe their vote does not matter. It really does though, but there needs to be a
clear list on who voted for whom in the Electoral College. With this list it makes
it easier to decide which candidates to keep or remove. The list can be
released January 1 of the following year after the Presidential Election. Citizens
deserve to know which way their elected officials voted in Presidential
Elections. We need to be able to put in candidates that will serve the people
best. To do so we also need information on how each candidate voted so we the
people can make better decisions. Information will not be enough we also need
to act. I voted for Senator X, because I knew he would vote for President B.
Well he didn’t and now I need to make good and try to remove him with the help
of other people who were duped.
This is how the system works people. It takes a very
long time. It is a very slow process. But it is the only process we have. It
only works when we stand up and do something about it. For those calling for a
new voting process, realize that the Electoral College will never go away. Instead
of completely changing let’s ask for a minor tweak.
I found this article very interesting, since this is an issue that directly affects us even though little has been done about it in years. One of the biggest excuses citizens use for not voting is that they don’t believe their vote counts, and that may not be too far from the truth. Although we vote in popular elections for whom we want to be nominated, our vote isn’t individually counted. Rather, we vote to be represented by someone who promises to vote in our favor. Even then, in most states, majority vote rules who gets ALL of the electoral votes. If 40% of the population votes for a republican, and 60% votes for a democrat, the democrat receives all of the state’s votes. This doesn’t allow the individuals who voted for the republican to be represented. In contrast, Nebraska and Maine proportionally distribute their votes depending on citizen votes.
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