America Gov Ch13

The 12th Amendment changed the rules of the electoral process by having electors make separate votes for president and vice president. It goes on to say that if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives would select a president from the top three candidates. The Amendment also stipulates that the Senate would choose a vice-president from the top two candidates in the event of a tie for that office. This second design of the Electoral College provides for the workings of a two-party system in America and is still in effect today.

The Electoral College has become more democratic as parties have become involved. Instead of having the state legislature elect electors based on

The political system many of us know today as the Electoral College is one that has been in place in our country for over 100 years. The Electoral College is a system that helps determine who is elected as President and Vice President during major elections. The Electoral College is the primary source of determining who is elected. This system although having withheld through the times and stayed in place is not effective to me, and can lead to unfair elections in the eyes of some American People.

The electoral college, per Wikipedia, is a mechanism set up to select the president and vice president of the United States. (The Electoral college, 2016) It was during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that the founders established Article 2. Article 2 Section 1 details the innerworkings of the executive branch of government. The constitution states, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress”. (The Constitution of the United States, n.d.) The framers of the Constitution had many different ideas about how the selection of our president should go but ultimately

The constitution had arranged that the winner and the runner-up would become President and Vice President respectively. The vote was thrown into the House of

Established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Electoral College is a system utilized in The United States of America to select the President and Vice President. This process was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787, when the Constitution was written. The original purpose of the electoral system was to ensure that those who select the leaders of this nation were the most knowledgeable and informed people that America had to offer. The electors - the elected officials that make up the Electoral College - are elected to office through a general election wherein the entire national population has the right to vote. The President of the United States, however, is actually elected to office by the Electoral College only, regardless of the popular vote of the citizens in general. Thus, the Presidential election is the only federal election in our nation where the vote of the citizenry does not directly determine the victor. Despite the fact that this electoral system has been in place and operational for over two hundred years, the Electoral College is looked upon by some as an honorable system, whereas others view it as faulty. The Electoral College is not fair and equitable because it is based on population, it is not trusted by the people, and it is unjust to the wishes of the citizens.

Today, people have the technology to get informed and learn new information about the candidates. Also, even though Alexander Hamilton saw the electors as being "free from any sinister bias," we’ve learned that members of the Electoral College are now selected by the political parties and they’re expected to vote along party lines regardless of their own opinions about the candidates. This meaning that democrats vote for democrats, republicans vote republicans so on and so forth.

There is a laundry list of other roles the American President has including; Chief Diplomate, Chief Legislator, Head of Party, Chief Economist, Chief Citizen, Chief Executive, and Chief Administrator. The position of Head of State is more structural-like but being Commander-in-Chief and the Chief Diplomat are institutional and Constitutionally elucidated, Art. II, § 2, cl. 1 and cl. 2 respectively. Conversely, the delivery of the State of the Union address is as Chief Citizen is more procedural like.

At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Founding Fathers could not decide if the president should be elected by Congress or elected by a popular vote, so they decided to create the Electoral College (“US Electoral College”). The Founding Fathers did not trust the people to vote on the right presidential candidate, so they decided that an indirect election was the best method (Becker). The Electoral College is a group of individuals who elect the president and vice president in the United States of America (TED-Ed). The number of electors that are given to each state is stated in Article II,

The decision on how to choose who these electors would vote for was left up to the states. Most states eventually decided to use the general ticket system where all of that state’s votes go to one candidate, whoever receives a majority of the votes in that state. The system for solving ties or failure to win a majority in the electoral college is to send the vote to the House of Representatives. There, each state is given one vote to cast for president. A vote is taken until one candidate has a majority.

It would seem that the founding fathers were a lot smarter than we give them credit for in 1792. This was the year the College, as we call it today the Electoral College, ratified in the Constitution of the United States of America by the colonies. This would also start the longest continuous debate our nation has ever experienced over a single political issue that continues even today. This debate came center stage during the election of 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (Jefferson’s Vice President running mate)received the same number of electoral votes for President even though they were running mates (http://www.ushistory.org/us/20a.asp). This tie would lead to changes to the Electoral College of their day and the foundation for the 12th Amendment to our Constitution.

The President of the United States is often considered the most powerful elected official in the world. The President leads a nation of great wealth and military strength. Presidents have often provided decisive leadership in times of crisis, and they have shaped many important events in history. The President has many roles and performs many duties. As chief executive, the President makes sure that federal laws are enforced. As commander in chief of the nation's armed forces, the President is responsible for national defense. As foreign policy director, the President determines United States relation with other nations. As legislative leader, the President recommends new laws and works to win their passage. As

There have been many attempts to reform or even scrap the Electoral College election sense it's birth. The most recent one being in 1997 when congress debated a constitutional amendment to replace the electoral system with a direct popular vote system. However the Electoral College system to this day remains virtually un-changed from its original form. The only exception is the twelfth amendment, which requires each elector to cast two votes, one for president and one for vice president.

Many benefits go along with the requirements given to the candidates and voters. In fact, before a candidate can become president, he or she says a presidential oath. The Presidential Oath goes: “I do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States ,and will to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” (“American Presidency”). Many requirements exist for the eligibility of President of the United States. Three main requirements exist to become eligible for the position. The first requirement to gain eligibility for President of the United States includes the need of a Native-Born United States Citizen. Congress often questions this

The Electoral College is almost an archaic system, however, we cannot blame our nation’s founders for the flaws we find today. The US constitution was written in a time when political parties did not yet exist. In the conflicting party’s absence, the largest division between Americans was small states against large states (5 – 11 para). The small states vouched for congress to elect our president so that they would receive enough representation that they