First, what is the Electoral College. Well, to begin with, it is not a college. Rather, the Electoral College is a group of special voters. What makes them special? They represent the majority of voters in each of the states; for example, the majority of voters in Illinois. The president is elected by these special voters who were, in turn, elected by you and other individual voters.
When you vote for someone to be president, you are actually voting for someone, an Electoral College voter, in your state to vote for your choice for president. This means, if the majority of people in your state vote for someone to be president, the majority of Electoral College voters in your state will vote for that person to be president.
In the end, the president is elected by Electoral College voters elected by you and other individual voters.
Now, why is this better than electing the president by individual voters (the so-called “popular vote”)? The answer is:
In each section of the country (each state) the voters virtually always vote based on their regional interests and not based on national interests. If the popular vote were the rule, California and New York would vote for their regional interests and ignore the regional interests of the rest of the country. The regional interests of Illinois would be ignored. The regional interests of Oklahoma would be ignored. The regional interests of Nevada would be ignored. The regional interests of Florida would be ignored. The regional interests of every other state would be ignored.
Let us drill down a bit on how regional interests would be affected:
California would vote for someone who would cause oranges to be imported from other countries because that would mean California would make more money from having more ships stop at California ports. This, in turn, would mean that Florida would sell less oranges. That would mean Florida would lose billions of dollars. And that would mean the people of Florida would have to pay higher taxes.
Here is another example:
New York would vote for someone who would make abortion (murder) of newborns legal. This would mean other states would be forced to allow the abortion (murder) of newborns.
One final example:
California and New York would vote for someone who would take away our guns. This would mean that every other state in the union would have their guns taken away. We would be far less able to defend ourselves against home invaders and other criminals.
