Voters Intimidated by Electoral College

In recent conversations involving myself and other "newer" voters I have come to realize there is a massive misunderstanding in the voting process. The majority of the confusion comes in the form of poor education regarding the Electoral College process. I must admit until recently, in an insomnia fueled Google search, I didn't think my vote counted either. I learned everything I thought I knew about the election process in high school.

This year will be my first year voting due to lack of education and a feeling of helplessness. I had originally thought that no matter how I voted, personally, that the only vote that mattered was the electoral vote. While, this is true to some extent, it does not discount my vote to the extent I had previously assumed. The fact is that most states carry a majority rules policy in awarding candidates electoral votes and most if not all electoral representative are bound to vote by a pledge. This is the reason I am voting this year.

An abbreviated description would be something like this: political parties select favorable electoral reps, you vote and the states majority vote is awarded their parties selected reps. I did not know this. I thought the Electoral College was there to protect the country from people like me. I felt as if the writers of the Constitution thought the general public needed to feel involved by voting but they didn't trust them to know enough to cast a vote the made influence. I am relieved that this is not the systems truth but I do think it is a generally held opinion "up there" with "those guys".

It is my belief my generation (born in the mid-80's) is less likely to show up to vote based on poor education if not just poorly written text books. Actually, while I'm thinking about it, I believe my generation is less likely to show up for anything productive, when compared to previous generations. While writing this I also noticed a critical flaw in my generations "knowingness" we blame everything on everyone else. I could have just as easily educated myself on the topic but didn't care enough because someone else was supposed to teach me.


Eddy Ridiculous