Do you live in one of these 7 states?
Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
If so, congratulations, you get to pick our next President. Also, you shouldn’t vote for Brian Kienitz for President or any other 3rd party.
Don’t live in one of those states? Then your vote probably doesn’t matter … and that sucks! That’s why the best use of your non-swing state vote is a vote for Brian Kienitz for President.
What’s wrong with the electoral college?
The electoral system for choosing a President was always a compromise. Just like the Connecticut Compromise that set up our two legislative bodies, the electoral system was designed to give a voice to the people, but also make sure each independent state in the new coalition couldn’t be totally ignored. This led to the current system where states (and Washington, D.C.) elect a slate of electors that determine the President. Each state gets the same number of electors equal to the sum of their number of Representatives and Senators. There were very few stipulations put on the states about how they should choose the electors other than the number of electors.
So states did the obvious thing. They gamed the system to give themselves the most power and sway. In 1800 Virginia became the first state to give all of their electors to the winner of the state popular vote. Soon after almost all the other states followed suit. Currently every state except Nebraska and Maine delegate electors in this winner take all fashion.
The states tried to game the system to give themselves the most power and sway, but they ended up doing the opposite. Most states vote counts were not particularly close. Candidates didn’t waste their money and time on those states. Instead, they focused almost all of their energy on a small collection of swing states that could go either way. We are now at a point where only a handful of people in a handful of states determine the President. So once again, if you are in one of those states congratulations and I hope you don’t take your responsibility lightly.
What can we do?
First and foremost, if you live in a swing state realize that there are only two real choices for President and it is your job to pick between them. In your case a vote for anyone else is a wasted vote. For the rest of us we can use our vote to protest the system and make our concerns heard. The truth is that it is going to be tough to change the electoral system and will likely take a Constitutional Amendment.
There are also several groups attempting to update the electoral college system in other ways. One of the most famous is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This compact pledges to award state electors to the candidate that wins the national popular vote. So far 17 states have signed on. Personally, I believe that the Connecticut Compromise was a good thing. I believe states getting a vote makes sense and that the two body legislature has been overall successful. I would instead propose the Maine Compromise (based on how Maine currently awards electors). In this case the states popular vote would decide the electors representing the Congressional districts and the winner of the state would receive the two additional votes representing the Senators. In this way everyone becomes a swing voter and the states still get a say in determining our President.
