The American electoral system was designed to make elections easier and to balance the power between the big states and the small ones. The system consists of primaries, polls, the popular election and finally, the Electoral College vote.
The part of the electoral system that I see as ineffectual is the Electoral College. It is possible for a president to be elected without having won the popular vote. In fact, it is numerically possible for someone to be elected to office by winning only 11 states.
That is one of the flaws that I find in the system. Another is the fact that the system is not time- or cost-conscious. Since, by law, every vote in the popular election is tallied, why not let the popular vote elect the president? Why waste all the time and money to hold a meeting to have another vote for the presidency that will have the same results as the first?
However, I do not blame the system for its faults. The system was created by the people and it is up to the people to change or adapt the system if it fails, becomes obsolete or is ineffectual. But that requires an effort on the part of a generally apathetic populace.
Despite the faults in the system, I feel the biggest flaw in the American system of voting lies not within the system itself, but with the voters. The Primary portion of the system is designed to allow the “best” candidate to move to the front and represent the party. Despite all efforts to create a candidate that is best for the job, most voters do not pay attention to whom will be best.
We dislike the person who may be the better candidate simply because he may be of a different faith, not belong to the right civic group or simply because he didn’t come to the community barbecue that we invited him to.
Instead, we, by our very nature of being humans, think selfishly and not for the good of the nation. We vote for the weaker candidate because he avoided stepping on any toes by not really taking a stand.
Candidates who refuse to take a definite stand on an issue scare me because, as a song by musical artist Aaron Tippin says, “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”
Until everyone can put aside personal differences and vote for what is “best” instead of trying to vote for what is “right,” our system of elections will still be tainted.

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