What is The Electoral College? It is a process the founding fathers established in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified cirizens. The process consists of the selection of the electors. Most states use a ''winner-take-all'' method that awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate. The Electoral College is the method we use for voting and selecting our president's.

Thanks to the quirks of the electoral college-won the popular vote but lost the presidency. Over 60 percent of voters prefer a direct election to the kind we have now. Therefore I think that we should change to a popular vote. Over 50 percent of the people agreee, and I think that should be enough proof. This year voters can expect another close election in which the popular vote winner could again lose the presidency.

The problem with the electoral college is that you voters vote not for the president, but for a slate of electors, wwho in turn elect the president. For instance, if you lived in Texas and wanted to vote for John Kerry, you would vote for a slate. The slate containing 34 Democratic electors pleged to Kerry. Most likely those voters would probably win the election because Texas is a big state and a high percentage of the people voted Kerry.

The Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have trans-regional appeal. No region has enough electoral votes to elect a president. Just as Romney was a solid regional in the South, has no incentive to campaign heavily in those states. This causes the method to be difficult to chose a for sure winner. Usually elections are always close.

The Electoral College restores some of that weight in the pollitical balance that large states lose by virtue of the mal-apportionment of the Senate decreed in the Constitution. The method may turn off potential voters. Especially for a candidate who has no hope of carrying their state. Democrats in Texas and Republicans in California. I think that we should changeb to a popular vote method. Either way, people should be encouraged to vote because every vote counts.