Daphne Hall0:00 Okay, hi everyone.0:01 Today I'm gonna be talking about the Electoral College and more specifically why we should eliminate the Electoral College as a nation.0:10 So as we know, the Electoral College has decided who becomes president.0:14 And someone needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.0:20 And it really doesn't matter whether they win the popular vote or not.0:23 As we saw in 2016 when Hillary won the popular vote, but Donald Trump won the electoral votes.0:30 So he was president in 2016.0:33 Anyways, I don't think that the electoral votes count votes equally, and that's kind of a fundamental principle of democracy.0:48 For example, a vote cast in Wyoming would weigh more than a vote cast in California because of the amount of electoral votes each state has in regards to their population, but it's just not really even to how many people actually live there anymore.1:07 And especially people in urban areas don't have kind of lost their voice because of where they live.1:13 And so the Electoral College also kind of messes with how campaigns are run.1:24 Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania.1:27 And these states are heavily dominated by campaigns.1:35 And presidential candidates make it their duty to go to these states and spend a lot of time and a lot of money on these states.1:40 Whereas a lot of voters in predominantly blue or predominantly red states don't see these same um like campaign trail stops.1:52 And so voters in those states are effectively like sidelined and their concerns aren't seen as much just because they're like a safe bet.2:00 Um the system also kind of, as I said before, lets presidents take office without winning the popular vote, which I think is a pretty big issue.2:08 Um just because it means that the majority of Americans could not want the president, and that president could still win.2:15 Um it just kind of distorts the actual like the representative opinion of um all Americans.2:25 And so I think what could be a better solution is having a national popular vote.2:29 Um, with the modern technology education and communication that we have these days, um a lot of these barriers to voting and to maintain or like getting a clear vote in the United States that justified the electoral college no longer exist.2:46 And so a direct popular vote would make every vote count.2:49 Um voter turnout would actually increase because a lot of people right now with the electoral college don't feel as though their vote counts, so they don't vote.2:55 Um, and it would ensure that the president is actually the president of the people.