Every democracy in the world elects it leader according to the person (or party) that got the most votes in the election -- every democracy but one, the United States. Thanks to the archaic electoral college system in our Constitution, our president is not chosen by the popular vote, but by the winner of the electoral college. In two of the last six elections, the candidate that lost the popular vote was chosen president by the electoral college -- George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
That makes this country a laughingstock among democracies. How can we justify choosing a person who did not get the most votes?
Sadly, the electoral college is built into our Constitution. To eliminate it, we would need a constitutional amendment, and that is very unlikely to happen.
But maybe there is another way to truly become a democracy. There is a movement called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This is where states pass a law saying the candidate who got the most popular votes nationally would get the state's electoral college votes (regardless of which candidate won the most votes in that state).
So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed such a law. These are the states (and their electoral votes):
California.....55
Colorado.....9
Connecticut.....7
Delaware.....3
D.C......3
Hawaii.....4
Illinois.....20
Maryland.....10
Massachusetts.....11
New Jersey.....14
New Mexico.....5
New York.....29
Oregon.....7
Rhode Island.....4
Vermont.....3
Washington.....12
But that only adds up to 196 electoral votes. 74 more electoral votes would be needed, so more states need to join in the compact by altering their state law on choosing electors. If they do, then the electoral college vote would be moot, and the popular vote winner would be the president.
We elect every other of our officials by the popular vote. It's time we do the same for the president. Until then, we will not truly be a representative democracy, because the vote of a person in some states will still be more important than the vote of a person in another state. And that's ridiculous!
