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It's time to abolish the Electoral College

So long as there aren't any major shifts in the states which have yet to be officially projected, it appears as though Republican nominee Donald Trump will end up with 306 electoral votes, compared to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's 232. Clinton leads in the popular vote, however, as she currently has 60,981,l18 votes, compared to 60,350,241 for Trump - over a 600,000 vote difference. With most of the remaining uncounted votes being in the blue states of New York, Washington, and California, it's predicted that Clinton will wind up with at least 2 million more votes than her opponent. If we made the Electoral College proportional, the results would currently be as follows:

AK (3): Trump - 52.9%, Clinton - 37.7% (DT - 1.59 , HRC - 1.13)

ID (4): Trump - 59.2%, Clinton - 27.6% (DT - 2.37, HRC - 1.10)

MT (3): Trump - 56.5%, Clinton - 36.0% (DT - 1.70, HRC - 1.08)

ND (3): Trump - 64.1%, Clinton - 27.8% (DT - 1.92, HRC - 0.83)

WI (10): Trump - 47.9%, Clinton - 46.9% (DT - 4.79, HRC - 4.69)

WY (3): Trump - 70.1%, Clinton - 22.5% (DT - 2.10, HRC - 0.68)

SD (3): Trump - 61.5%, Clinton - 31.7% (DT - 1.85, HRC - 0.95)

IA (6): Trump - 51.8%, Clinton - 42.2% (DT - 3.11, HRC - 2.53)

IN (11): Trump - 57.2%, Clinton - 37.9% (DT - 6.29, HRC - 4.17)

OH (18): Trump - 52.1%, Clinton - 43.5% (DT - 9.38, HRC - 7.83)

PA (20): Trump - 48.8%, Clinton - 47.6% (DT - 9.76, HRC - 9.52)

UT (6): Trump - 46.3%, Clinton - 27.7% (DT - 2.78, HRC - 1.66)

NE (5): Trump - 60.3%, Clinton - 34.0% (DT - 3.02, HRC - 1.70)

MO (10): Trump - 57.1%, Clinton - 38.0% (DT - 5.71, HRC - 3.80)

KY (8): Trump - 62.5%, Clinton - 32.7% (DT - 5.00, HRC - 2.62)

WV (5): Trump - 68.7%, Clinton - 26.5% (DT - 3.44, HRC - 1.33)

AZ (11): Trump - 49.5%, Clinton - 45.4% (DT - 5.45, HRC - 4.99)

KS (6): Trump - 57.2%, Clinton - 36.2% (DT - 3.43, HRC - 2.17)

AR (6): Trump - 60.4%, Clinton - 33.6% (DT - 3.62, HRC - 2.02)

TN (11): Trump - 61.1%, Clinton - 34.9% (DT - 6.72, HRC - 3.84)

NC (15): Trump - 50.5%, Clinton - 46.7% (DT - 7.58, HRC - 7.01)

SC (9): Trump - 54.9%, Clinton - 40.8% (DT - 4.94, HRC - 3.67)

OK (7): Trump - 65.3%, Clinton - 28.9% (DT - 4.57, HRC - 2.02)

LA (8): Trump - 58.1%, Clinton - 38.4% (DT - 4.65, HRC - 3.07)

MS (6): Trump - 58.3%, Clinton - 39.7% (DT - 3.50, HRC - 2.38)

AL (9): Trump - 62.9%, Clinton - 34.6% (DT - 5.66, HRC - 3.11)

GA (16): Trump - 51.3%, Clinton - 45.8% (DT - 8.21, HRC - 7.33)

TX (38): Trump - 52.6%, Clinton - 43.4% (DT - 19.99, HRC - 16.49)

FL (29): Trump - 49.1%, Clinton - 47.8% (DT - 14.24, HRC - 13.86)

MI (16): Trump - 47.6%, Clinton - 47.3% (DT - 7.62, HRC - 7.57)

ME (4): Clinton - 47.9%, Trump - 45.2% (HRC - 1.92, DT - 1.81)

VT (3): Clinton - 61.1%, Trump - 32.6% (HRC - 1.83, DT - 0.98)

NH (4): Clinton - 47.6%, Trump - 47.3% (HRC - 1.90, DT - 1.89)

WA (12): Clinton - 55.1%, Trump - 37.7% (HRC - 6.61, DT - 4.52)

NY (29): Clinton - 58.8%, Trump - 37.5% (HRC - 17.05, DT - 10.88)

MA (11): Clinton - 60.8%, Trump - 33.5% (HRC - 6.69, DT - 3.69)

RI (4): Clinton - 55.4%, Trump - 39.8% (HRC - 2.22, DT - 1.59)

OR (7): Clinton - 51.7%, Trump - 41.1% (HRC - 3.62, DT - 2.88)

NV (6): Clinton - 47.9%, Trump - 45.5% (HRC - 2.87, DT - 2.73)

NJ (14): Clinton - 55.0%, Trump - 41.8% (HRC - 7.70, DT - 5.85)

CT (7): Clinton - 54.5%, Trump - 41.2% (HRC - 3.82, DT - 2.88)

CA (55): Clinton - 61.6%, Trump - 33.1% (HRC - 33.88, DT - 18.21)

CO (9): Clinton - 47.3%, Trump - 44.4% (HRC - 4.26, DT - 4.00)

VA (13): Clinton - 49.9%, Trump - 45.0% (HRC - 6.49, DT - 5.85)

MD (10): Clinton - 60.5%, Trump - 35.3% (HRC - 6.05, DT - 3.53)

DE (3): Clinton - 53.4%, Trump - 41.9% (HRC - 1.60, DT - 1.26)

NM (5): Clinton - 48.3%, Trump - 40.0% (HRC - 2.42, DT - 2.00)

DC (3): Clinton - 92.8%, Trump - 4.1% (HRC - 2.78, DT - 0.12)

HI (4): Clinton - 62.2%, Trump - 30.0% (HRC - 2.49, DT - 1.20)

MN (10): Clinton - 46.9%, Trump - 45.4% (HRC - 4.69, DT - 4.54)

IL (20): Clinton - 55.4%, Trump - 39.4% (HRC - 11.08, DT - 7.88)

Totals: Clinton - 257.12, Trump - 253.28

Here's a condensed breakdown of the three voting routes:

1) Electoral College: Donald Trump likely wins by 74 votes

2) Popular Vote: Hillary Clinton likely wins by over 2 million votes

3) Proportional Electoral College: Hillary Clinton wins by approximately 3.84 votes

While I may not have the perfect solution regarding the matter, can we at least all agree that the Electoral College needs a serious overhaul, if not a complete abolishment? The only argument I hear in favor of the EC (Electoral College) is that it gives a greater voice to the lesser populated states, and that if we elected our president via popular vote, this would be lost. I see multiple problems with this rationale.

1) With the Electoral College being as it is, doesn't it prevent millions of voices from feeling heard on election day? Even if a Democratic candidate wins a state by the count of 10,000,000 to 9,999,999, he or she wins every electoral vote and close to 10 million voters feel as if their voices weren't heard.

2) Don't certain states hold a much greater influence on the election results anyway? The magic number as far as electoral votes go is 270. California, this country's most populous state, is worth 55 EVs, 20.4% of what's needed to win the election. States worth 3 EVs, however, are only worth 1.1% of what's needed to win the presidency. Comparatively, California is home to approximately 18 of the 200 million registered voters in this country, or 9.0%. In other words, as far as the most populous state in the country goes, the Electoral College provides a much greater influence over election results than a popular vote count would. Even if we were to divide California's 55 electoral votes by the total of 538, it'd still come in at a higher percentage (10.2%) than when it comes to its registered voters.

3) Isn't it quite possible the Electoral College system condenses voter turnout? Some states are so dark blue or dark red, members of the opposing party may very well feel it's pointless to vote on election day because their candidate will ultimately lose their respective state. When I lived in deep red Nebraska, while I voted every election day, I went in feeling as though my vote didn't count for anything, knowing full well the Republican candidate would win. If each and every person knew full well their vote counted toward electing the next president, don't you think they'd be more prone to voting?

As I said earlier, I don't have all the answers, but I think we as a nation need to take a serious look about changing how we elect our presidents, for when the losing candidate earns more votes than any other besides a twice-elected president and garners 2 million more votes than her opponent, something's seriously amiss. If the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos 31-17 in the Super Bowl and we crowned the Broncos as champions, wouldn't we feel that was wrong and want to do something about it?

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