Explaining the Electoral College Thomas Hibbert
Most democracies around the world (including the UK) elect their heads of government by a popular vote. The person with the most votes wins. Simple. But in the US, they have a system known as the Electoral College. It was a system that tries and fails to prevent the tyrannical majority from ruling. 51% of the population could make life miserable for the other 49%. There are 538 votes who decide who the President will be, but these votes are given to states, rather than people. Each
state has three guaranteed votes, and then they are given additional votes in proportion to the population size of the state (or the District of Columbia). It is these three guaranteed votes that have turned the Electoral College into an unfair and undemocratic system - Texans have lost 5 votes and Californians have lost 10! Their lost votes are given to smaller states with smaller populations, like Vermont and Wyoming. In some examples, 1 Vermont vote is equal to 3 Texan votes, and 1 vote from Wyoming is worth 4 votes from
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