Rate the following essay on its writing, argument, and language skills:
Dear senator, the system we have today used to elect the president, the Electoral College, must be changed.  Instead, we should elect the president by means of a popular vote.  The Electoral College is unecessary and complicated, and not to mention, outdated.  Source 1 says that the Electoral College was established in the Constitution by the founding fathers.  This begs the question, how can a system so old still be practical and in use today?  This system, therefore, needs to be replaced by a national popular vote.

There are so many things that could go wrong with the Electoral College, such as a tie, in which the decision would go to the House of Representatives.  According to Source 2, if this were to happen, than, "the single representative from Wyoming, representing 500,000 voters, would have as much say as the 55 representatives from California, who represent 35 million voters."  This, of course, would not reflect the nation's vote, and would anger millions of people.  If we elected the president by a popular vote, than the chances of this happening would be significantly more slim.

Another flaw of the Electoral College is that even if a presidential nominee won the popular vote, they could still lose the election.  Even though some may argue that this occasion is highly unlikely, this has actually happened twice before, in 1888 and 2000, according to Source 3.  "It is entirely possible that the winner of the electoral vote will not win the national popular vote... It happened in 2000, when Gore had more popular votes than Bush yet fewer electoral votes."  This is a major flaw of the Electoral College system, which is very frustrating to millions of people.  Imagine how you would feel if your candidate won the majority of the nation's vote, but still lost the election because of this horrible voting system.  This unfair incidence could be avoided, if only we got rid of the Electoral College, and replaced it with the simple, fair, and straightforward method of the popular vote.

The popular vote is the preferred voting system in the United States.  According to Source 2, "over 60 percent of voters would prefer a direct election to the kind we have now."  If this is the preferred voting system, and the Electoral College has so many flaws, why not change to using the popular vote?  It only makes sense.  Not to mention, if the Electoral College were to be thrown out, then maybe more people would come out to vote, which is important. We would then have a more accurate representation of who the nation wants as their leader.

Some may argue that the Electoral College is a good system of electing the president, that the founding fathers knew what they were doing when they established it, and that it "produces a clear winner," (Source 3.)  But, the information given above disproves these unvalid arguements.  If the Electoral College is such a great system, than why can a nominee who won the majority of the nation's votes still win the election?  Will it always produce a clear winner?  What about the event of a tie?  Or, what about when the "winner" did not win the majority of the votes?

In conclusion, the replacement of this flawed system known as the Electoral College by a national popular vote is absolutely necessary.  The people are pushing for a change, and I strongly urge you, senator, to acknowledge this issue.

Score: 5