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Look, I understand the concept of the electoral college, that is to give small states somewhat as equal of representation as large states. My issue with it, however, is that it encourages the two-party system.
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How exactly does it do this? Well for one, it's very difficult for one party to reach 230 electoral votes when a 3rd party is equally as successful. Also, if a third party agrees more with one party than the other, they take votes away from that party causing the other to win.
Most people don't like this, as they believe the 3rd party candidate is directly responsible for the victory of a greater evil, so they rarely vote 3rd party in droves, and so 3rd parties rarely gain much traction and never win.
the biggest problem with the "lesser of two evils" push is that evil will still be implemented inevitably, so regardless of who wins, our rights and privileges as Americans are stripped away little by little and special interest groups more and more often exploit us.
Take gun policy for example. It's without a doubt true that Trump is MORE pro-gun than Biden, but at the end of the day Trump still ended up implementing more gun control-related policy in 4 years than Obama could in 8.
This is exactly why the GOP has become what it is today. Republican voters are great people who for the most part in liberty and limited government, but Republican POLITICIANS govern very similarly to Democratic ones, only slightly less blatantly tyrannical.
So, the overall point I'm trying to make is that the electoral college should be abolished because it encourages evil on both sides. After all, when applying market principles to the electoral process, one can conclude that with less competition, there is less accountability.
But, it shouldn't be replaced with a direct democracy either, as that too will inevitably encourage a two-party system as well, because the spoiler effect still applies. It should instead be replaced with instant run-off//ranked choice voting.
In this system, voters are allowed to rank their vote by true preference, rather than by begrudgingly "settling" for one of two blatantly evil candidates. The candidates with the lowest preference are eliminated one by one until the most universally preferred candidate wins.
This also makes the voting environment far less hostile. In case you haven't heard the left or the right, this election is literally life or death to a huge majority of them. With instant-runoff, it doesn't have to come down to that.
