What is the best way to vote?

During Wednesday’s class, we discussed how an electoral college is actually the determining factor in selecting the president of the United States. In national elections, the state is given the responsibility to make the decisions, while the will of the people is merely a suggestion. I find it odd that it is urged that the people vote in the presidential election, when in reality, their vote is not the one putting a president in office. We also discussed many pros and cons of the states and electoral colleges making decisions versus the general population. Many good points were made in favor of states and electoral colleges casting the votes, including that the general public is uneducated and can be easily swayed by passions or fads. Counting the votes by the majority of states as opposed to the public also protects the rights of smaller states, who contain less of the country’s population. While all of these make a strong case, I believe the strongest point in favor of electoral colleges was presented in the article I chose for my current event.
In this week’s issue of Newsweek there was an article entitled “Securing (Or Not) Your Right to Vote”. It contained the results of a study done on the electronic voting machines in California, as mandated by Secretary of State Debra Bowen. As many people had feared, it was confirmed that “There were far too many ways that people with ill intentions could compromise the voting systems without detection”. Some proposed solutions were to get a receipt from the voting machine and to turn it in for recounting purposes; however, it has been shown that even these receipts can be manipulated. A “voting integrity” act has been proposed as well, but it has yet to be passed. It a technological age, it is unsettling that the results of something as important as an election cannot be confirmed. Yet, other alternatives, such as going back to the paper ballot, are not favorable either. As we remember back to the presidential election of 2000 with the recount of ballots in Florida, it seems that there is no clear solution.
It may be said that we should not determine the president based on the will of the people because they are uneducated. I believe we should not determine the president based on the will of the “uneducated” public because there is no possible way to determine that their opinions are presented accurately.