The Electoral College is a process begun a long time ago due to the lack of educated and literate citizens in the United States, whom the government did not believe were eligible to vote for any president under any circumstances. Now that our literacy rate in the United states is now more than 80-90% (or so I believe), I don't really think that the Electoral College is useful anymore.

The Electoral College is a process describing 538 electors voted for by the state who will vote for the new president every four years. A majority vote of 270, one more than half, is required to elect the new president. The number of electors for each state equals the number of members in it's Congressional delegation; meaning one for each member in the House of Representatives that represents your state, and two for your Senators. However, I think that a popular vote, or having the citizens themselves vote for the president, may be more useful.

There is an off chance that electors may vote for a candidate that their citizens did not want to choose, or the chance that two slates of electors may be sent to Congress, etc. Another prospect is the idea of a tie in the electoral vote, which would mean that there would be 269 votes for both Presidential candidates. In the event of this happening, the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, in which the state delegations would choose the president. This may be fatal, however, because states like Wyoming, which only have the population of 500,000, will have as much to say about the fate of the United States as a state like California, home to 35 million people.

A lot of people usually are in favor of the Electoral College due to certainty of outcome and swing states. Swing, or toss-up states are the states that are undecided until the very end, and could very well change the entire tide of the Election. "Voters in toss-up states," reads one argument, "are more likely to pay close attention to the campaign-- to really listen to the competing candidates-- knowing that they are going to decide the election." But should we really leave such a large and important decision up to such few people? A mere 538? And even less for toss-up states?

Overall, I think that the Electoral College is outdated due to it's lack of need anymore, does not fit the democratic and equal methods of the United States (for the most part), and leaves too large of a decision to too small of a group. Popular voting may just be the solution to this problem, and although popular voting may not be perfect either, it might help us figure out who we really need for our president, rather than leaving it to just a small group.