Every time there is an election in the United States, the debate of Electoral College always heats up, and suddenly everybody seems to know about or at least they are interested in learning about it. The Electoral College is firmly established under the United States Constitution to elect the president and the vice president of the United States indirectly. A slate of “electors” are chosen from each state, and they are the ones responsible for voting for president in the general elections depending on which party the candidate is vying with. From this statement, what it means is that one does not choose his or her preferred leader directly and this has made many suggestions that the Electoral College is not a true representation of democracy. This paper will look at the strongest arguments for and against the Electoral College, analyze whether the current Electoral College should be re-engineered or scrapped in favor of direct vote and finally determine if the Electoral College is consistent or contrary to democratic principle.
Several times in the US history, a president has won the election even without winning the overall national vote as George W. Bush did in 2000. To the other countries that practice no such electoral process, this might seem very unusual and hard to understand. Apparently, they are not alone because some Americans also feel that there needs to be a change to the constitutional provision as they feel it undermine their democracy and the overall
The Electoral College is an excuse of the electoral process, proving itself to be undemocratic, false in representation, and harmful to third-parties. Therefore, the Electoral College should be abolished, and the process should rely on the popular vote to have the leading judgement in the election procedure for a new president. The Electoral College has proven that a candidate may not need to win the popular vote of the people of the nation in order to win the presidential election. But first, beforehand, let me introduce the system in which the Electoral Process is based upon. The Electoral Process is the government’s created system of indirect voting in order to elect the nation’s president.
The electoral college in the Constitution has the purpose of electing the President with the cooperation of both Congress and the people. The process consists of citizens first selecting electors based on the quantity of delegates in each state, which then become known as the electoral college, and then compromise to elect the President as well as the Vice President. Although there have been controversies on candidates not winning the election when they have received the popular vote, the electoral college provides equality among the small states as well as checks and sets boundaries towards the preferences of the majority. Not only is balance emplaced, but delegates are also elected with the incorporation of knowledge in the government rather than interest.
In the “Point: Abolishing the Electoral College,” Benjamin Bolinger, a licensed lawyer who can practice law in Colorado and Pennsylvania, argues that the Electoral College needs to be abolished for the American democracy. Bolinger examines that some states with a little population have large number of electoral college compare to those states with larger populations. He believes that the Electoral College damages the value of democratic government by leaving
The voting process in America appears straightforward, but it is a very complex, complicated system. The Electoral College is America’s current voting system. The Electoral College still serves its intended purpose, but with increasing political activity among Americans it has caused a need to reform this process. Research suggests that the Electoral College system should be amended because it poorly illustrates democracy, is outdated and the majority of Americans are in favor of abolishing the system.
The Electoral College has become ineffective in the twenty-first century due to the advancement in technology and the progression in public education, allowing one to formulate a cultured opinion in today’s politics. Nevertheless, the decision to do so will positively affect the citizens and government relations; therefore, will cause America to become more democratic, improved country. However, if it is not abolished soon more elections, like 2000 and 2016, will occur, thus, an increased amount of distrust between the people and the government. Nevertheless, Americans are already divided and will result in new, larger problems in the future if the country’s leader is unable to bring his or her people together. Therefore, Electoral College is only causing problems in America’s democratic process rather than solutions that will only escalate from today
The nominee who acquires the highest number of votes on a nationwide scale is declared the winner of the national popular vote. However, the victor of the national popular vote could still transpire being defeated within the election, in the same manner as Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Al Gore in 2000. By gaining Florida’s votes, Bush closely attained the electoral vote above Gore by way of 271 to 266—merely one more over than the required minimum of 270 “winner-take-all” electors. Then again Gore did win the popular vote over Bush by approximately 500,000 votes, the first flip over of the electoral and popular vote ever since 1888. This is because although Americans clearly vote in favor of their preferred nominee in the Presidential election, the Electoral College institution elects the president. Successively the founding fathers compromised the Electoral College within the U.S. Constitution allotting every state with as many votes as it has members the President is not elected during the course of a national popular vote. The procedure was crafted as a medium terrain in the deliberation over whether voters or Congress would possess dominance to vote for the President. Currently when nominating the President through a national popular vote there certainly still is support, removing the procedure of assigning electors between the stated by means
The Constitution Convention of 1787 gave birth to the system of Electoral College. According to the Constitution, electors per state are equal to the number of seats each state holds in the Congress, which include the Senate and the House of Representative delegations. California holds the most Electoral which is 54 electors. However, with every census the numbers of each states electoral change due to the process called reapportionment. Reapportionment can be defined as the “the process by which congressional districts are redrawn and seats are redistributed among states in the house ; reapportionment occurs every ten years.” The Electoral College should not be preserved because it is unfair due to the fact that candidates who do not win plurality of the votes can still get electoral votes. It is unfair to depend on the 538 Electors to become the voice of three hundred and nineteen million people.
The electoral college is an institution that every four years is in charge of electing our President, and Vice President. In school we are always taught that its the right and fair way to elect our president, but why? When the Founding Fathers created the process in 1787 along with the constitution certain founders such as James Madison thought the process would hurt the south and under a prior agreement set by southern slave states allowed states to count slaves as votes. This gave Southern States the majority of the electoral votes. In the first distribution of electoral votes Virginia(a heavy slave state) came out the big winner with over a quarter of the US votes where a state like Pennsylvania(a free state) had far less. The pro-Southern
In the “The Electoral College Is Important Because It Reflects the Will of the States,” Charles Fried, a law professor at Harvard Law School and was solicitor general of the United States, argues that the Electoral College should continue. Due to the U.S.A being a direct democracy, the representatives and members of the electoral college are chosen by the citizens; however, they do not elect their presidents directly. He expresses that the states have their own political culture, personalities, and traditions, and they are not the administrative elements of the the federal government; therefore, they can only elect their governors by popular vote. Ultimately he concludes that it is not always the popular vote which determine the winner; sometimes
There’s a saying that is thrown around from time to time stating that “if something is not broke don’t fix it.” It seems to be thrown around all the time after a president has been chosen in America usually by the winning side, meanwhile, the opposing side always complains how unfair the presidential election is. Some people say this is the way our founding fathers chose our country to always work and there is no reason to go back to tweak the process. To better understand what certain electoral college supporters, mean by not changing what the founding fathers wanted and what they drew up one has to go back in history.
Another major fault of the Electoral College is the fact that it allows for a tie during the official Presidential race while on the other hand a popular vote would almost never result in a tie. In order to win the Presidency a candidate must receive a minimum of 269 electoral votes during the official election. There are exactly 538 electoral votes available for each candidate to win, one for each member of the Senate and the House of Representatives combined. The math shows that 538 divided by two is exactly 269 votes, one vote shy of the needed majority to become President. If each candidate was voted for 269 times during the official elections, no candidate would become President right away. Founding Fathers also did the math when the Electoral
There are so many parts about the electoral college that are very wishy-washy among Americans. The emotions and thoughts that we have towards political topics go back and forth, either way, no matter who you ask. The electoral college is one of the stickiest topics brought up. That is because there are positives and negatives about every part of it. Where do those ups and downs come from, however, and what are they?
Every four years a new, or sometimes veteran president, gets elected by the American people via the Electoral College. For as long as America has used this system, only five candidates have been elected despite losing popular vote (Gore). Regardless of how great a past president who won office lacking the popular vote was, our nation's leader should be elected based on a popular vote system, not on a voting method that favors largely populated states. Furthermore, with the degree of citizens in America on a continuous increase, it is time to make a change to the twelfth amendment with our outlook as a country in mind.
Since its foundation, The Electoral College has dealt with a dispute between those who trust in the benefits of the electoral procedure and those who view it as inimical. I on the other hand support the perspective of the Electoral College being unfavorable and believe that the Electoral College should be abolished, as it evolves around numerous dilemmas, including the concernment of the popular
The United States is globally recognized as a democratic nation, granting voting rights to its citizens that place the power of government in their hands. This power is held dear by U.S. citizens nationwide, as well as other nations who strive for democracy and recognition. Unfortunately, this universally recognized right is quite erroneous. The United States uses a system called the Electoral College to elect the President and Vice President. This system consists of 538 electors that choose the President for the people – nullifying the concept of democracy. Therefore, the United States should abandon the Electoral College system for Presidential elections because it places the power of government in the hands or politicians and political machines, while revoking power from the hands of the citizens – from the hands of the people.