The 2016 presidential election left many people feeling helpless after Donald Trump won the presidency because of the Electoral College, even though he lost the popular vote by over 3 million votes.

Three million more Americans wanted Hillary Clinton to be president over Trump. They went to the polls and voted, hoping to make their voices heard only to be left feeling as if their votes meant nothing. Living in a red state but voting Democrat almost feels pointless and vice versa. The system of the Electoral College is telling Americans that their voices matter, but only to a certain extent. And some voices matter a little more than others.

Though some states are more populated than others, every person in those states deserves a say on who our elected officials should be. The Electoral College takes away that opportunity. Instead of counting all the votes and seeing who the people want, the Electoral College gives each state a set number of votes roughly based on population to account for number of House representatives and two more to account for the Senate seats. As a result, votes get skewed and smaller states end up getting more weight in the Electoral College than larger states.

The Electoral College puts a heavy emphasis on swing states, forcing presidential candidates to focus on appeasing the voters there, when in actuality they should be focusing on everyone and doing what is in the best interest of the entire country. The campaign turns into a strategy to win over the right states in order to win the electoral votes, when instead it should be candidates competing to win over as many actual people in the country as a whole.

In the event of a tie in the Electoral College, the vote will go to the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote. This means that a state with around 4.9 million people (like Alabama) has the same amount of say as a state with 21.3 million people (like Florida).

This system was laid out when only white men who owned property had the right to vote, which clearly is not the case anymore. It was also put into place at a time when people were illiterate at drastically high levels, forcing Americans to rely on delegates to speak for them. With the extreme changes our country has seen since it was founded, we should not be afraid of change. We should not be afraid to challenge existing political systems, especially those which were put in place by a small portion of our population at a very different period in time.   

If our people are all equal, our votes should be too. One person’s vote should not mean more than another’s for any reason. We live in a democratic country, and the Electoral College is far from democratic.

Whether you live in a highly populated area or a small town, everyone is a part of the same country and votes for the same thing. Everyone’s vote should matter, and the Electoral College does not allow for all voices to be heard.

We need a new system of voting, one that relies on the popular vote and the voice of the people to choose their president. Everyone’s vote should matter – the Electoral College says otherwise.