After reading the arguments from both Burdett Loomis and Byron E. Shafer, I would say that the president should be elected directly by the people. Originally, there were several reasons behind why we have an electoral college system. One of the primary reasons was to give states with smaller populations some power when it comes to electing a president. The original framers feared that states like New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia would dominate who picks the president. They also knew that a majority of the population were not educated enough to pick the right candidate for the job of president. They believed that people needed wise men to dictate who would be best for everyone (1). 

Despite this somewhat evening the playing field between states, this did and does not actually seem to be effective. As a resident of Alaska, I know that if I were to vote for a democrat, my vote will not matter because it will be republican anyway. This means that we do not get visits from presidential candidates. They do not care about my state not only because it only has three electoral votes to offer, it is also reliably a red state. I do not get to be an active participant in presidential elections. Other states, where every vote matters because they could swing either way, this is a very different experience. Just look at a state like Wisconcin during a presidential election cycle. This same experience is what propels Loomis to make his main argument. He also states that with his experience in presidential elections, he mentions that a majority of states are not competitive for a presidential election and makes the people in those majority states feel disenfranchised. Like their vote does not matter. 

One other large loophole of the electoral college is that the system allows for something called “faithless electors,” or people who vote for a person that was not chosen by the people in that state. In fact, the Constitution makes it clear that electors are allowed to vote independently. This harkens back to the era of the framers when they believed that the population was not educated enough to make what they thought would be the right decision. Throughout the existence of the electoral college, 157 electors have voted against the state’s chosen winner (1). It is very concerning that there is not accountability in this system. 

With these very worrying downsides of having an electoral college system, it is not wonder why I and others would believe that the electoral college needs to be abolished. Not only do a majority of states end up as little more than witnesses to an election, out ultimate decision as a state can be negated by a random elector. At the very least, it needs to be heavily reformed in order to meet the modern era of politics. As the old saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well this system is broken and we need to come together across party lines and fix this issue. 

(1) https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Big-Ideas_West_Electoral-College.pdf