Yes, guys. You read the title clearly. Why vote for the next president of the United States when YOUR VOTE MEANS NOTHING AT ALL? Yes, I know I’m a Singaporean but I did sometimes spend some time, studying the American culture and how their government works. Now then, shall we start our rant?

(WARNING: If you are insulted easily by other people’s criticism, DO NOT READ.)

Okay, so this is how the American election system works. The American government use something called ‘Electoral College’ ([link]). What is this system, you ask? Well, The Electoral College in the United States is the body of representatives which formally elects the President and Vice President of the United States.

Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, U.S. citizens cast votes for electoral college representatives, known as electors. While electors are theoretically free to vote for the candidate of their choice, in practice they pledge to vote for specific candidates. Thus, voters indirectly vote for Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates by voting for correspondingly pledged electors. Because all of the electors from a state will generally vote for the Presidential candidate who receives the most votes in that state, U.S. Presidential campaigns concentrate on winning the popular vote in a combination of states that choose a majority of the electors, rather than campaigning to win the most votes nationally.

Yes, now that does sound a little unfair right? I mean it’s not the citizens of the country who decides, it’s the ELECTORS who decide who’s gonna be the next president! Also, take a look at this picture ([link]). As you can see, all those states with less population like Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island only get like 3 to 4 elector seats while all those ‘head’ states like California, Texas and Florida get like…27 TO 55 ELECTOR SEATS! That is why in every election, the candidates usually focus on those ‘big’ swing states in order to get more votes and higher chance in winning the elections. It doesn’t matter who wins the most states as long as they win the MOST SEATS! People win Presidential elections by SEATS! Not by VOTES! Does that sound fair?!

So guys, can’t you see? It’s not the people who decide who is the next president, it’s the government itself! Just like that unfortunate 2000 presidential election ([link]). Al Gore should have won because he won the most popular votes (which is THE PEOPLE’S VOTES) but in the end, the presidency ended up went to George Dubya Shrub.

Gore won 48.4 percent of the people’s votes but Bush gets to president anyways! That’s because Bush barely wins the elections by winning 271 electoral votes (Which is THE GOVERNMENT’S VOTES) while Gore wins 266! So in the end, Bush won the presidency not because of the people’s votes, but because of the GOVERNMENT’S VOTES! Is that fair?! Even if you don’t win popular votes, you still get to be president if you win electoral votes! ([link])

Yeah yeah, you guys always talk about Bush VS Gore in 2000, Bush VS Kerry in 2004, and Clinton VS Bush in 1992. But in 1992, I never heard anyone talking about Clinton VS Bush VS Perot! Yes guys, in 1992, there was a third-party candidate in that election. His name was Ross Perot, or should I say the biggest dumbass of 1992? Why was Perot a third-party candidate? Because he thinks he can take on Clinton and Bush? No! Because you know why? Once again, because of Electoral College, nobody ever focuses on third-parties at all!

Look guys, these days, third-party candidates never win elections. No matter how good or a natural born leader you are, you can NEVER win a presidential election as a THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE.

Why bother being a third-party candidate when elections always talk about Democrats and Republicans? Why be a third-party candidate when Electoral college only focuses on the two main parties of the government? Only a person who is dumb enough will try his luck to be a third-party candidate and try to win the presidential election. In practice, the winner-take-all manner of allocating a state's electors generally decreases the importance of minor parties. So why even bother being a third-party candidate at all?

Therefore, sadly overall, it’s not the number of votes of the citizens of the country which decides who will be the next president, it’s the elctors of each state in America who decides who will be the next president. And therefore, this shows that your vote is completely utterly WORTHLESS.

And now, it’s time to show some articles to proof my point.

[link]

In the 1980 presidential elections, Ronald Reagan, who is still up to date, the greatest US president of all time, won the popular votes to Jimmy Carter by winning 50.7 percent of the votes while Carter won 41 percent. That sounds quite fair, right? But take a look at the elctoral votes! Reagan won 489 electoral votes while Carter only won 49! Does it sound fair that Reagan won the election by winning the popular votes by a margin while he won the electoral votes by a LANDSLIDE?! I mean look at the map for crying out loud! ONLY SIX STATES ARE BLUE! ONLY SIX!

[link]

Here’s an article to proof my point about third-party candidates. In 1992, Ross Perot won 18.9 percent of the popular votes but he never won a single elctoral vote at all. Not even a single state in the United States is coloured white. So what does this show? Voting for a third-party candidate is A WASTED VOTE!

[link]

And now, here’s the 2000 presidential election which is probably the most disappointing election of all. Al Gore won 48.4 percent of the popular votes. But George Dubya Bush still gets to be president anyways! And it was all because Bush won all the seats in Florida! And because of electoral votes and Electoral College, George W. Bush stole the stinking presidency.

So guys, I hope this proofs my point. Why vote for the president when your vote means nothing?

So I hope after writing this rant, nobody flames me about my criticism. I’m just trying to tell how I feel about the election system in the United States and why the country sometimes gets the wrong president for the wrong reasons. It’s because of no good…

ELECTORAL COLLEGE.