Literature Review Final Draft

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1 The Electoral College: A Literature Review Name Institution Affiliation Date

2 The Electoral College: A Literature Review An iconic representation of the American democratic system is the Electoral College. The Electoral College has served as a go-between for voters and presidential candidates in the United States ever since the first election. We take a look at the factors that have influenced Electoral College regulations at the state level and the reasons why opinions on the subject have become so divisive. "An apportionment method that partially offsets this bias might be advantageous because the Electoral College has built-in biases that favor small states" (West 2020). Due to the fact that the US consists of a mix of relatively small and large states, the Electoral College acts as a check on the more consequential factors. When it comes to the Electoral College, it's important to remember that different states have varied statutes regarding how electors can vote. While some states' electors are obligated to cast ballots based on the popular vote, others are not. Gaines and Jenkins have already made the point that the Electoral College is biased in favor of smaller states. The Institutional tradition is the ancestor of the Electoral College's norms and its functions. An all-encompassing blanket of fairness and malapportionment sets forth the basis of the electoral college system. A systematic view of unhappiness is created when electors are forced to adhere to the popular votes, due to biases favoring smaller states and not having all the states as a collective. This perspective on the voting system, held by both supporters and detractors of the system, originates from the school of thought known as ideas. Citizens feel an emotional and mental impact from the electoral college. They point fingers at the electoral college when one side loses and celebrate it when the other side wins.For the most part, people have been unhappy with the system from its inception because of the wrong choice phenomenon, which states that the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in the popular vote might not really be elected

3 (2023). This article will trace the Electoral College's historical development, examine the legislation that governs electors, and analyze the impact of these statutes on public opinion. Also discussed in the paper will be the most recent findings regarding the Electoral College and its impact on the modern system of electing presidents. Review of Literature Understanding the Electoral College Instead of electing a president by public vote, a nation's leaders are chosen by the Electoral College. This national-level method adds complexity to the presidential election with 538 electors from the 50 states and the DC (Yunus 2020). But within the larger context of the Electoral College, every state uses its own system. The winner-take-all model, in which the candidate receiving the plurality of the popular vote in a state is entitled to the full electoral reward, is a popular approach that many states have embraced. In many states, the winner-take- all principle is the prevailing electoral legislation, making it so that getting the most votes in a particular state is a make-or-break deal. The winner-take-all method, as its name suggests, eliminates the chance of a runner-up receiving any electoral votes at all, thus highlighting the winner's complete victory inside a specific state (Kikuchuki 2022). Not all states' electoral laws require electors to cast ballots that match the popular vote's majority, but some do. At this time, 29 states have such mandatory laws in place, guaranteeing that the Electoral College votes are representative of the general public's views. But in the other twenty-one states, voters are given some leeway to cast ballots according to their own preferences, rather than being bound by the will of the people. This gives voters more agency and flexibility in the voting process.

4 The complex dance of democracy in American politics is exemplified by the ever- changing interaction between federal principles and state-level variances. As a uniting and diverse institution, the Electoral College exemplifies the need for a representational and responsive federal government while also respecting the independence of the individual states (Schultz 2021). As the years go by, the Electoral College remains a defining part of American politics, sparking constant discussions about and introspection into the concept of electoral representation. Fair Representation To ensure that the president's election fairly reflects the will of the people, legislation was passed and the Electoral College was refined. For the United States presidential election to be fair and competitive, equitable representation is necessary, as it is in line with the institutional school of thinking. A modest degree of disproportionality favoring small states at the expense of large states is inherited by the Electoral College due to the fact that the Senate is not divided by population (Xu et al., 2019). From the perspective of the opposition, this means that there is more room for disagreement about the electoral college, since smaller states may end up with an unfair number of votes. A other school of thought, the ideas school of thought, could be represented here due to the bias. There is a psychological impact of the presidential election result, as stated in the opening. In his new article, Shugart laments that although the US may have been an early adopter of the popular presidential election, it has lagged behind other developed nations in terms of the procedures used to hold such elections. Diamond 2021. The goal of requiring electoral votes to match the popular vote was to ensure a fair election, however this policy has backfired. Because it demonstrates that an election can be won apart from the

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