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THE VOTE THAT MATTERS....IS NOT YOURS?



My father and I engaged in a good debate last Friday. It all started when I posed the question: “Does My Vote Count?” He directed me to the article I’ve presented below. The answer is clear—my VOTE isn’t the REAL VOTE!


Thank you Harold Brown Sr. for the article!


Article:
Americans will vote for a new President in about two weeks. But it is a special group of Americans whose votes matter most when it comes to selecting a President. These special voters are electors, and they are members of our nation’s Electoral College.

So…wHat is the Electoral College???
It is neither a school nor a building. It is a group of people whose votes a candidate must win to become President. The nation’s Founders did not think it was a good idea for Presidents to be elected based only on the “popular vote.” The Founders believed that Americans would not educate themselves about the candidates or the issues. So, thus the Electoral College was born.

When Americans vote for the candidate they want to be President, they actually are voting for electors who promise to support that candidate.

So..hOw does iT WoRk???
There are 538 electors. The number of electors that a state has is equal to the number of its U.S. Senators and Representatives combined. [FACT: Every State has 2 Senators] For example, Alabama has 9 electors (2 Senators & 7 Representatives); on the other hand, California has 55 electors (2 Senators & 53 Representatives) [FACT: The number of Representatives varies based on population].

To become President, a candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes, a majority.
NOTE: In most states, whoever wins the popular vote wins all of that state’s electoral votes.

PrObLeMs…??

The electoral vote counts most. So, the candidate who wins the popular vote can still lose the election . Some people argue that this is unfair. The last time this happened was in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush received more electoral votes.

Another argument is that the electoral system encourages candidates to focus more on “battleground” or “swing states.”{A swing state is a state in which no candidate has overwhelming support, meaning that any of the major candidates have a reasonable chance of winning the state's electoral college votes}


So wHy do we SuPporT the Electoral College?

Supporters say the Electoral College is needed. They say it is the only way to ensure that candidates pay attention to the needs of less populated states.

[Article Source: Scholastic News: “The REAL Vote,” Dara N. Sharif]