Although the U.S. has continued to show glitches in its voting system in recent decades, Americans still refuse to transform its election process, mostly because of their distrust in technology and the country’s deep-rooted mechanism for avoiding unequal power.
Over the past weeks, the 2020 U.S. election has experienced unprecedented chaos from a coronavirus surge, racism, mail-in ballot legitimacy, and technology and fraud disputes. Until now, Joe Biden, elected as the 45th U.S. president, has not received a concession from the current president Donald Trump.
In the course of all these problems, if people closely follow recent U.S. elections, the most central question might be whether or not the Electoral College system should be replaced. The announced winners, such as Trump, sometimes do not represent the majority’s choice and depend on the disproportionate numbers of Electoral College’s votes to win.
“It’s clearly not working well,” said Marilyn Geewax, journalism educator and former National Public Radio’s senior business editor. “But because of the Electoral College, politicians have to pay attention to the middle of the country.”
Geewax explained that while the Democrats dominated the coastal states with large populations and growing prosperity, the middle parts of the country were called “flyover” areas where elites just passed by. They, therefore, would benefit from the Electoral College system that gives them disproportionate power.
The Democrats often dominate the coastal states with large populations. Graphics by Metrocosm.
“It would be tough to pass any kind of a constitutional amendment to fundamentally change the system,” she said, adding that these small states in the middle of the country are not likely to approve the plan.
Despite being one of the most innovative and democratic countries in the world, low proportions of voter turnouts in the past century’s elections are also questionable in the U.S.
“America is below average [in voter turnout rates]. It may be in the high 60% of eligible voters voted this year, which, for America, is good,” said Rick Dunham, the American co-director of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University, “but it is embarrassing to me.”
The Washington Post estimated that the turnout will be at 73.7% of eligible American voters, tending to break a 60-year-old record set in 1960.
However, according to Pew Research Center, the 55.7% of voting-age population turnout in the 2016 U.S. election trailed to most of its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), placing 30th out of 35 nations.
This year, the U.S. did receive a more considerable number of early mail-in votes due to COVID-19. Many proposed other technology-related solutions, but the trust issue is problematic in this divided nation.
The outdated electronic voting system in the U.S. is said to be insecure, which made it vulnerable to cyberattack during the 2016 election.
Dunham also said that Americans have a resistance to the government keeping data on them.
“I think Americans at this point wouldn’t trust if I voted on my computer,” said Dunham.