Rate the following essay on its writing, argument, and language skills:
Dear State Senator,

Im going to tell you why im in favor of keeping the Electoral College. I will give you a few reasons why we should keep the Electoral College and don't worry I will also tell you some stuff, that's not really good to keeping it.

Lets start off with the first reason why we should keep the Electoral College. The first reason is the big states. I probably have confused you but let me explain to you what I mean. The Electoral College restores some of the weight in the political balance that large states lose by virtue of the mal-apportionment of the Senate decreed in the Constitution. For example, in 2012 the popular vote was really close in Florida; nevertheless Obama, who won that vote. In other words, other things being equal, a large state gets more attention from presidential candidates in a campaign than a small state does.

The second reason why is, avoiding run-off elections. The Electoral College avoids the problem of elections in which no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast. For example, Nixon in 1968 and Clinton in 1992 both had only a 43 percent plurality of the popular votes, while winning a majority in the Electoral College. There is pressure for run-off elections when no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast; which would highly complicate the presidential election, which is reduced by the Electoral College. It can be argued that the Electoral College method of selecting the president may turn off potential voters for a candidate who has no hope of carrying their state; for example, Democrats in Texas or Republicans in California. Knowing their vote will have no effect, they have less incentive to pay attention to the campaign. Voters in presidential elections are people who want to express a political preference rather than people who think that a single vote may decide an election.

Next reason is swing states. The winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes induces the candidate, as we saw in 2012's election. The voter who are in toss-up states are more likely to pay close attention to the campaign, really listening to the competing candidates. They are likely to be the most thoughtful voters (and for the further reason that they will have received the most information and attention from the candidates), the most thoughtful voters should be the ones to decide the election.

Now im going to tell you something bad about keeping the Electoral College. Under the electoral college system, voters vote not for the president, but for a slate of electors, who in turn elect the president. Let me ask you a few questions, who are the electors? They can be anyone not holding for public office. Who picks the electors in the first place? Well, sometimes state conventions, or state party's central committee, or the presidential candidates themselves. Did you know the single best argument against the electoral college is what we might call the disaster factor. Consider that state legislatures are technically responsible for picking electors, and that those electors could always defy the will of the people. Perhaps most worrying is the prospect of a tie in the electoral vote. In that case, the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, where state delegations vote on the president. At the most basic level, the electoral college is unfair to voters. Because of the winner-take-all system in each state, candidates don't spend time in states they know they have no chance of winning, focusing only on the tight races in the "swing" states.

I'll admit that the Electoral College is a bit unfair and irrational...but there is also some really good reasons to keep it. No matter how hard it is to decide, I have stated my reasons why we should keep the Electoral College. To me I believe that Bob Dole was wrong when he said, ''Abolish the Electoral College!" We should not abolish the Electoral College but instead, keep it and maybe make it better.

Score: 5