The Electoral College is a system that should no longer be used because it is based on an outdated system from the first years of our country's independence.  It would be much more beneficial to use the popular vote as the final vote.  One reason is that one canidate can get more votes, but still lose the election! Another is that many states never get to see the potential president speak, as to make their descion.  Lastly voting would be easier to count and to understand for citizens and those who work the election.

In 2000, the electoral college failed to properly represent our country's people.  More people voted for Al Gore, but Bush still won the election.  In the states where Bush did win, it made the people who voted for Al Gore insignificant and their votes would never again be considered.  Even if in every state a paticular canidate won by one vote, that person would still get every electoral vote, because they won the state, this is mostly an issue in large states.  This is unfair to the losing canidate because their voters never really got a chance.  If it was a popular vote, voting would be much more direct and easier to understand.  Citizens might even be unaware that they aren't really voting for the president, they are voting for their electoral college representative.  With popular vote, there would be no more confusion, and no more worrying about comparing the two voting methods.

Another reason is that some states may never get a chance to see their potential president speak.  Potential presidents tend to go speak in swing states, or states that may vote either for them or for their opponent, since it is based on the states vote not the individual people.  When a president goes to speak in a swing state they are convincing people that it will be a better choice to vote for them, not the other canidate.  If somebody lived in Rhode Island, for example, they would never get the chance to see their potential president speak, therefore they would have to make their descion based on television speeches, newspaper articles, etc.

Also states that tend to vote one way or another often do not get visited because there is no point in trying to convince a state to vote for you that is definitley already going to vote you, to vote for you, and vice versa.  Swing states with high populations are really the only states that are visited.  It is no promise that the potential president will go to every state or even every region, but they will more likely than not visit different states than they would have before.  If popular vote decided who would become president, it likely would no longer be true for presidents to only visit swing states.

Last, the entire election process would be much more simplistic.  There would be a whole group of people who no longer would have to be a part of the process, and the less people, the less mistakes.  Also each state could still add up their votes, then add all the state's votes together and voila, the president has been chosen, by the people.  There would be no more arguments as to who really won the election, as in popular vote versus electoral college.  Also there would be much less of a chance for a tie, the more numbers the less each number is worth.  Overall, the electoral college adds unecessary complications to a potentially simple system.

The popular voting system would still be difficult to take care of, but much better than the previous system, the despised electoral college.  Throughout the years we have seen twice where our course of history could have been radically changed, with a different president.  The popular vote system would increase the power of the people, allow more people to see the president speak, and get rid of unecessary complications and confusion of the electoral college.