Let's Fix the Electoral College

The Electoral College is an important part of picking our President and needs to stay in place.  However it needs to be fixed in order to work the way that it was intended to work.

The Electoral College is suppose to give everyone a voice instead of just the big populated cities.  Without the Electoral College places like Los Angeles would be more important than Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin all combined.  If a candidate could win the Los Angeles area he or she could get more votes than all those states combined.  One city makes 5 states irrelevant.  That is why the Electoral College exists and is important.  So each state has a voice in the Presidency.

Look at what is happening in California right now to understand how the popular vote would destroy us.  A vast part of California is fed up with how the state is governed and want to make their own state.  They don't feel represented by the state government.

So now we know why the electoral college exists and why it is important.  However it needs some fixing.

How are electoral votes disbursed to each state?  You get one vote for each Congressman/woman for each state and 1 for each Senator.  So for Wisconsin we have 8 Congressional Representatives and 2 Senators.  (Each state gets 2 Senators) Wisconsin then is worth 10 electoral votes.

Right now many states have decided that the winner of the votes in the state get all the electoral votes for that state.  So if you win Wisconsin by even 1 vote you get all 10 electoral votes for Wisconsin.  Same for California and many other states.  Actually only 2 states, Maine and Nebraska, divide the votes.

I propose that all states should divide their electoral votes.  The states are broken up by Congressional districts already.  During the election, for each Congressional District a Candidate wins they get that electoral vote.  That would force Candidates to work the whole country to win the votes.  Instead of just the big cities.  Right now you only have to win the big cities to get the state and all the electoral votes for that state.

Lets look at California.  California has 55 electoral votes.  Hillary Clinton won the state with 62% of the votes.  Donald Trump only got 32% of the votes.  So it is reasonable to assume that 1/3 of the voters in California did not vote for Hillary Clinton.  Yet every Electoral vote went for her in the Presidential election.  Without spending hours breaking it down by Congressional District lets just assume and say Clinton gets 62% of the Electoral Votes and Trump gets 32%.  Clinton would have only gotten 34 of the electoral votes and Trump would have gotten 17.  Rough Math but you get the idea.

This would make every vote count much more so than how it is done now and also make every state count.

Lets look at the 2012 election.  Obama beat Romney 332 votes to 206.  A landslide victory that sounds like a mandate for Obama by the American People.  But lets look closer.  Here is the Electoral Votes map for 2012.

2012 Presidential Election

Now lets take a look at the same map factoring in Congressional districts.

2012 Presidential Election by Congressional Districts

Take a close look at Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Obama won both of those states and took home a combined 38 electoral votes.  But if you look at the state by Congressional District he didn't represent even close to the majority of the state.  Only the bigger Metropolitan areas.  The same can be said for Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, West Virginia, Florida, Colorado and New Mexico.  The person getting the electoral votes did not represent a majority of the state, only the big cities.

If you look at the second map it sure doesn't show a mandate.  It realistically doesn't even show how Obama won, except for knowing how the electoral votes are disbursed.

The big cities are deciding our President and the rest of America is forgotten.

2016 Presidential Election by Congressional Districts

The above map shows the last Presidential election.  In the wake of the stunning loss by Hillary Clinton they call for the popular vote to be the only vote that matters.  Trump lost that vote, but I don't think that you would fairly represent the majority of the United States if you said Clinton won.