Whether it be moderate or drastic, the Electoral College is in need of a reform. Roughly 200 years ago our country's method of voting for it's highest rank was sufficient. However, nowadays citizens of the United States are more aware of politics and are more knowledgeable and therefore are able to vote for themselves. Additionally, with a small percentage of the population voting, more than two or three parties running for office, and no federal laws or constitutional provisions saying that an elector has to vote in accordance to the popular vote of his state, the Electoral College is long outdated (Electoral College Procedure 2). .
Today, the Electoral College is a very complicated system of electing the country's next president. Each state receives two electors, one for each of that state's senators. Then, additional electors are designated according to that specific state's population (Longley 24). Come Election Day, after the votes are tallied and the popular vote of a state is determined, all the electoral votes for that state go to the candidate who received the most votes. This is a controversial part of the process. This "winner takes all" system has been a problem in the past and will continue to be a problem in the future. This system gives third parties virtually no chance of receiving any electoral votes since chances are they will not win the majority of any state. Additionally, referring back to the presidential election of 1888 we can see the need for a reform on this part of the Electoral College. In 1888, the race between Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison was very close. Benjamin Harrison received 5.4 million votes while Grover Cleveland received 5.5 million votes. However, since Benjamin Harrison won the popular vote in states that have more electoral votes, he received 233 electoral votes while Cleveland received 168 (Peirce 87). This is the circumstance in which a presidential candidate can win the popular vote but not the actual election itself.