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Letter to a
Representative
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Representative and mail in
Follow the link at the bottom of the page to
find your Representative and his/her addresses in your district and
in D.C.
Dear
Representative _____________,
I am writing you today as a constituent expressing my great
frustration with the Electoral College system. At best,
the Electoral College is a basic degradation to our democracy and
our values and was developed under circumstances that no longer
exist today.
This
system was established to overcome the educational and regional
differences America faced in the late 18th century.
The original 13 states were scarcely populated and widely separated
by a lack of communications and traveling technologies.
Therefore, individual voters were not expected to be able to make an
informed choice about who should represent their interests
nationally and their country abroad. The Founders believed
that they would rather be inclined to vote for a candidate from
their state – the favorite son effect – instead of the one best
suited to lead. Accordingly,
it was thought that elitists were better prepared to make an
informed choice about who should be president.
Moreover,
slavery contributed a tremendous disenfranchised population to
several states, mainly those in the south.
Not wanting to be overlooked, slave states argued for a way
in which slaves could be counted as some part of their population
without granting them the power of the vote.
Those states knew that their political clout would be reduced
if they did not receive representation based on population.
Today,
however, the Electoral College has failed to prevent many mistakes,
and has instead turned into an archaic system of concession and
compromise that is no longer appropriate for our country.
Under the current system, presidential candidates have no
incentive to campaign nationally.
The Electoral College forces candidates to ignore most states
and ignore the issues most important to those whom a President must
lead. It reinforces
overrepresentation for less populated states, which already receive
extra clout in the Senate. The
system also instills apprehension into those states that wish to
change their winner-take-all arrangement because of fear of losing
whatever extra power the Electoral College unfairly awards their
state over others. It
drowns out millions of voters and their voices, reducing their
concerns to inaudible levels if they are not speaking from swing
states.
Every vote
must count. Every voice
must be heard. I want
every American to have the same chance as I do to make a difference
and have a say in our government.
We vote directly for every other office in our country, from
Mayor to Governor to Congressman. There is no longer any reason for the American people to be
trusted with these offices but not the office of our nation’s
leader.
There is
currently a proposal in the United States House of Representatives
to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a majority
direct election of the President.
HJR 109, proposed by Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. proposes
the following:
Section
1. The President and Vice President shall be elected jointly by the
direct vote of the citizens of the United States, without regard to
whether the citizens are residents of a State.
Section 2. The persons having the greatest number of votes for
President and Vice President shall be elected, so long as such
persons have a majority of the votes cast.
I want my
democracy to thrive with the equal involvement of every citizen.
I want you to represent me, as a constituent, and support
Electoral College reform, and HJR 109. This method of choosing
our President is unfair for our state and bad for America.
Sincerely,
Informed
Citizen
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