Shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday, all major networks projected the re-election of President Barack Obama. It was an evening built on tension and anticipation. "So goes Ohio and Florida, so goes the nation," everyone said. Would they be the deciding states for who takes the oath and the Oval Office?
No. No, they wouldn't. The results were declared before the precincts for those two states were even reported.
The final vote for last night's election didn't come down to Ohio and Florida as expected, but that doesn't mean the conversation about the Electoral College should change. In fact, the buildup for this election and the final results show exactly why we need to eliminate the Electoral College.
Going into Tuesday's election, Rasmussen Reports had Romney and Obama tied in Ohio with 49 percent. This was not just another statistic akin to those of states like New York or California. Ohio got a phenomenal amount of attention this election season as a swing state. And what does that mean? It means Ohio is one of the few states in the nation that isn't predominantly Republican or Democrat.
This could have been the second time in a little over a decade and the fifth time in our history that the winner of the popular vote lost the electoral vote and, therefore, the presidency. With as quickly as the electoral votes were coming in at the end of the contest, the election looked like a total blowout. In reality, there was only a separation in the popular vote of just over 1 million voters, with Obama leading 50 percent to Romney's 49 percent.
The Electoral College isn't fair because it suppresses the voices of voters who don't necessarily agree with the red and blue sides of which their states sway. Elections should be determined by the will of the people and not by the bureaucracy of the Electoral College.
With a popular vote system, the candidate would have to change his or her strategy to focus on the more populous areas of each instead of the more rural areas to obtain more votes. You would see Mitt Romney campaigning heavily in New York City and in Los Angeles as opposed to Small Town, Pennsylvania.
At the same time, the candidates will be required to focus on the needs of the nation as a whole. Imagine the 2012 election under the popular vote. Campaigning in states like Ohio and New Hampshire would be completely feverish, and there would be a necessity to apply real solutions to our nation's problems instead of just presenting regionally specific rhetoric.
One of the positives of winning an entire state is if the outcome is contested, the controversy is contained to only the states in which the controversy is relevant. A closely contested race under the popular vote system becomes a national catastrophe. The American system was never designed to control democracy proficiently, however. It was designed to limit it and quiet it in an effort to simplify things.
We forget that in our country's rebellious start, we were an America of distinct colonies and cultures. Hundreds of years later, we are far more educated and far more advanced. We have access to technology that lets someone from New York know what is going on in Wyoming.
We currently have a system where the candidates are not focused on states that are guaranteed to swing a certain way. Instead, they cater specifically to the states that are as split as possible.
How often have you heard in this election season "my vote won't matter?" We have enough apathy in this country without our votes "mattering" or not. These people aren't going to care to vote if they live in an area where their electors dominate their vote. If you're in New York and referring to the national election, you're right - we look through blue lenses and vote Democrat. But not everyone in the state does, and those people who don't won't have their voices heard.
If we are really a country that governs for the people and by the people, we should make sure all the people have their votes and voices matter. That might not come in the hands of a popular vote system, but it certainly doesn't come with the Electoral College.
Email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
