Letter to State Representative
By Lauren Johnston
Dear Alex Charlton
Hi! How are you? My name is Lauren Johnston and I am an 8th-grade student at E.T. Richardson Middle School. In my social studies class, we are learning about the Electoral College and the National Popular Vote. I have done research and my whole class had a couple debates, which lead me to the conclusion that we should change the system and start using the National Popular Vote.
We should change the system and start using the National Popular Vote for many reasons. For example, every person’s vote would count more fairly. “Only 57.9% of the people voted, 41.4 percent of the people who could vote didn’t, and this is all because they feel as if their votes don’t count.”(Daniel S. Levine) When people feel that way they don’t go and vote anyway because they won’t want to waste their time voting.
Another reason why we should change the system is that more little states will get more attention other than just the swing states getting all the attention. “These swing states also called battleground states, play a disproportionately important role in the campaign and the election (Stephen Kaufman).” Although every state may not get attention, a lot more states will. If there is a little state then they may focus on that state as well because every vote counts with this, that little amount of votes could put you on top if you use the National Popular Vote.
Lastly, we should start using the National Popular Vote because without it, we may get presidents that we didn’t elect and didn’t vote for. Five times the president elected did not win the popular vote. 2016 is the most recent “The 2000 election was the most recent when the candidate who received the greatest number of electoral votes, and thus won the presidency, didn’t win the popular vote.”(D'Angelo Gore) That should have happened zero times, we did not elect that president nor did we want that president. This could be changed if we used the National Popular Vote, the president that gets elected will be the president that most Americans want.
In conclusion, the Pennsylvania Legislature should vote to include Pennsylvania in the National Popular Vote Compact. It would make electing the president much better. Thank you for considering my request.
Sincerely,
Lauren Johnston