Direct Vote Vs Electoral College Essay

Some people believe there is only one-way people vote for elections, but there are actually two main ways. These two ways are called electoral college and a direct vote. In the electoral college, a body of people cast votes for election. In a direct vote, voters directly cast ballots for the person/group they want to be elected. Although its more complicated, electoral college is more effective than a direct vote as it protects minorities and has a two-party system.

Unlike a direct vote, electoral college protects minorities making it superior. In 'In Defense of the Electoral College', Amel Ahmed states, "The Electoral College is designed to protect minority interests in a variety of forms, whether economic, ideological, or racial." These interests are not protected with a direct vote, where the candidates would target majorities for the greatest number of votes. Ahmed also writes, "without the Electoral College, one could win the presidency with a few key states." If we used a direct vote, the focus of candidates would be on states with larger populations and states made up of more rural areas would be generally ignored. This conveys electoral college is favorable to a direct vote.

The Electoral College uses a two-party system, contrary to a direct vote, to improve its capabilities.

In 'Political Parties: The American Two-Party System', the author writes, "Two-party systems are more stable than multiparty systems." Since a direct vote uses a multiparty system, it can become very unstable. The author states, "The two parties must appeal to the middle to win elections, so the parties tend to be more moderate." This causes two-party systems tend to be more stable. The author also writes, "Voters have only to decide between two parties. This makes voting with the electoral college much easier." All of these are advantages to the two-party system which a direct vote doesn't

include.
The Electoral College still has problems. Since it is much more complex, some citizens are dissuaded from voting. According to the U.S. Election Atlas, "There are many steps involved, which may give citizens the feeling that their vote doesn't matter, encouraging them to stay home instead of visiting the ballot box on election day." However, these complex steps give the vote much more security. Ahmed writes, "Hackers showed that a variety of voting systems could easily be tampered with, including ones used by the state." Hackers can create fake votes to support their chosen candidate. If we used a direct vote, it would be more difficult to catch these fake votes as it has much less phases than the electoral college.
As you can see, the electoral college is more advantageous than a direct vote. The electoral college protects minority interests, whether racial, ideological, religious, economical, and many more. Instead of using a two-party system with more moderate parties, a direct vote uses an unstable multiparty system. Even though the complexity of the electoral college dissuades some voters, it uses its many steps to secure votes. This proves, the electoral college is more effective and we should not change to using a direct vote.