Outside of a common identity based in a shared history, America is a nation held together by government. Among many of the services the government of the United States provides are education, a social safety net, as well as security from threats originating domestically and abroad. All of the aforementioned services are integral parts of American life because citizens have advocated for them through their choice of representation, by voting. However, despite the American ethos of democracy the Presidential election is not democratic. In effect the citizen's voice in the role of government is degraded. The source of this degradation is the Electoral College, a perversion of federalism (the division of power between State and National government). The Electoral College nullifies the value of the democratic popular vote by conferring the power of the presidency to the candidate who accumulates 270 of the State apportioned Electoral College votes. This system must be abandoned for a more democratic model in order to fully represent the citizens wishes in regards to whom they would have govern, as well as to repress the two-party system in order to revitalize the diversity of candidates.
In theory and practice, there are problems inherent in changing the scheme of how the President is elected in the United States. Theoretically the Electoral College is a republican device that seeks to mitigate the sometimes-divisive nature of majoritarian democracy by transferring some of the people's power to electors who in turn are bound cast all of their votes in concurrence with the candidate who has won the majority of the state popular vote. Unfortunately, the State's apportionment of these votes doesn't actually reflect the way the people voted when they are contributed to candidates in a lump sum. This is because the minorities votes are not being represented when the electors cast their ballots in favor of the majority favored candidate.
