Abolish The Electoral College

The self-segregation of Americans has removed any final argument for keeping this relic of compromise over slavery.

Seven states.

There are fifty states in America, but only seven have enough “give” in them to make a difference in the election.

Kamala Harris could win by fifteen million votes, but lose by a few thousand in Pennsylvania and Georgia and Donald Trump would be elected. The reverse could happen too (although we know that’s highly unlikely). Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Those seven states are what will decide this election, the same way they decided the 2020 election and the 2016 election. This is the third straight presidential election where seven states are the difference. The other forty-three are so locked into place that it only shifts the margins around. This isn’t “protecting the small states from the tyranny of the large states.” These ARE the larger states, and they are deciding the election for America for the third time in a row.

1. Pennsylvania (5th)

2. Georgia (8th)

3. North Carolina (9th)

4. Michigan (10th)

5. Arizona (14th)

6. Wisconsin (20th)

7. Nevada (32nd)

Nevada is the only one of the seven not in the upper echelon of population. Four of the seven are in the top ten. It is absurd to say that this method is anything more than a relic of a bygone age. If there was a tyranny of the majority, the membership of the House of Representatives wouldn’t be capped at 435. The Founders never intended for that to be the case, and it’s not in the Constitution—it was done by an act of Congress. The House was supposed to represent the population where it is at, and the Senate was supposed to have equal representation for all states. Because of this artifical cap (one that also effects the electoral college), a representative for Wyoming (population 577,664 in the last census) has the same power as a representative for the Texas 22nd Congressional District (population 880,197). In fact, of the ten most overpopulated districts, five are represented by Republicans and five by Democrats.

• TX-22

• FL-9

• TX-26

• NC-2

• NC-12

• TX-10

• SC-1

• VA-10

• GA-7

• OH-3

This overpopulation of districts because of the artificial limitation on the House means that Texas, a big red state, is the most affected. There should be at least two more seats in Texas. The same for New York, which doesn’t have a seat in the top ten, but half of its seats are overpopulated. Those extra seats would also add additional electoral votes. FiveThirtyEight has a wonderful infographic that you can play with and visualize the results, but safe to say that adding another 100 seats not only equalizes representation far better, but small states benefit as well. Forty of the fifty states would gain seats under such a change.

The forty states that all gain seats by lifting the artificial cap of 435.

I bring this up to further my point. There’s no tyranny here, no majoritarian faction getting away with anything. The tyranny is coming from the minority, which is suffocating the majority. The election was decided by 42,000 people combined in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona. That is 0.5% of the 7.4 million vote margin that Biden won in 2020. It is obscene that a candidate has to win obnoxiously large margins to eke out a victory in a race for president. Those three states going the other way would’ve meant an electoral tie, whereupon the House delegations, which we have already established are artificially slanted against the majority of the population, would’ve chosen Trump as President, against the clear majority will.

Enough. Abolish the electoral college. Let EVERY vote count, not just a fraction of a fraction in one of a few statistically important states.