Controversy Over The Electoral College

First off, what is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is the process put in place by our Founding Fathers in which America votes for its President and Vice President every four years. The Electoral College was put in place to help prevent abuse of power and corruption by having a separation of government. The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state based on how many Senate and House of Representative delegates that state has. These numbers range from 3 to 54 with the total number of electors being 538. This system has taken much scrutiny over time. According to Lenz and Holman, “The Electoral College may be the least-known and most misunderstood government institution in the American political system.”

Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.

Most states are always republican or democratic in the way they vote. So the amount of votes is already in favor of one candidate or another before voting actually arrives.(Document 7). Since the candidates are always insured a certain number of votes, the candidates only have to worry about “swing states” or states that change their decisions every election. Since the non-swing states never decide in favor of one candidate or the other by themselves the power to elect a new president resides with whom the citizens of swing states vote for. Without an electoral college, each citizen's vote would be worth more and everyone could help determine a new president instead of the select few who are living in “swing states.” All of these reasons help to make it clear that the electoral college is a corrupt

The electoral college is a system that was put in place by the framers of the constitution for many reasons. The main reason the electoral college is that the framers did not fully trust democracy for they believed that people were not educated enough to vote. After reading an article from Business Insider called The Electoral College Is Brilliant, And We Would Be Insane To Abolish It by Walter Hickey, I agree that the electoral college is necessary for our presidential elections. According to the article the electoral college is good because it keeps errors local, is a testament to a candidate's desire to win, and most importantly, forces majority. In the article opposing the Electoral College I found many of the arguments to be invalid or full of what ifs or buts, and that is why I do not have any reason to believe the electoral college is good.

One of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the United States was the creation of the Constitution. It was created by the Framers who included many important and specific rules to make sure that the government would be able to sustain itself. The Idea of the Electoral College was first introduced in this constitution as a way to make sure that there was a buffer between the population and the selection of a President. They did not want a dictatorship to arise due to a manipulative candidate. In recent history, the Electoral College has been a very controversial topic. Many people do not agree with it and believe that it should be abolished due to varying factors such as the unequal distribution of votes per state. When the Framers first created the Electoral College, I believe that there hopes of what it would become have not been met and that they would not be pleased with it in today's government.

The Electoral College makes it possible for citizens’ votes in certain states to essentially not matter at all. Since all of the electoral votes go toward the candidate that wins the popular vote in a state, if a state has a majority of people who vote for a certain party and a voter votes for the other party, his vote does not have any effect on the election outcome. The Electoral College system is leaving hundreds of thousands of vote’s discounted and irrelevant. The Electoral College twists each vote’s worth per state, causing the nation’s desires to be misrepresented. The Electoral College does not always show a distribution of support. A candidate could win the electoral votes

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.

Many people argue that the Electoral College is an outdated system. After all, many things have changed in the last two centuries. For one, technology is much more advanced now than it was two hundred years ago. With the internet and television, we can now learn everything about a candidate regardless of where the come from in the nation. It is feasible to have direct election of a president because of these improved methods of communication and the evolution of technology in general.

The Electoral College has been around since 1787 and is how the United States elects the president and vice president. Many people support the Electoral College because the Founding Fathers thought it was the only way to have a democracy without completely trusting the people to elect the president. The Electoral College process is stated in the Constitution so many people think it is the only way to elect the president. Many critics of the Electoral College call it out on the fact that a candidate can win a popular vote but not the presidency. This actually contradicts the fact that the United States is supposed to be a democracy. Many people, including myself, think that the downfalls of the Electoral College vastly outweigh the benefits, so the Electoral College should be abolished. Instead the United States should elect the president based solely on the national popular vote.

Not only can the popular vote be ignored in winner-take-all states but in small states like Wyoming and Vermont that only get 3 votes, whereas California gets 55. Which is exactly what framers from small states were worried about, their voices being drowned out by larger states. Candidates on the campaign trail would probably not waste money going to small states where their votes won’t really sway the election either way. This subconsciously shows that they don’t care about the people who live there or what they think. Also, certain states are very underrepresented such as California, Texas, New York and Florida. Underrepresentation happens when the share of population outweighs the share of electorate seats. At the same time, how can we definitely say that ten people can represent the votes 6 million people in

One important reason as stated in the background essay is that voters do not always have the correct information to vote for the right candidate. The popular vote is not always based off facts; therefore the electoral college protects the people from voting for candidates that try to “buy” their votes. This means that candidates may say things to make them seem like good people but they use those things to hide real fact that the actual electoral representatives will be able to have access too. If the electoral college

“The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors who cast votes to decide the President and Vice-President of the United States” (What is the Electoral College, 2012). In order for a candidate to win they must get the majority of the electoral votes which is 270. How does the Electoral College work? Every four years when people go to the polls to vote for the new president and the vice president of the United States, in all but two states (Nebraska, and

In addition, the Electoral College’s outcome does not demonstrate how a Democratic System should work. Third parties often get discouraged to run for presidency since they are unable to gain any strength do to the way the Electoral College is structured. Voters are often dissuaded to vote on states with a clear favorite, for they feel like their vote would not have an effect. The Electoral College gives power to smaller less populated states, which in turn boosts the electoral strength, thus traditionally favoring the Republican party. An advantage the Electoral College provides is the support of checks and balances as well as deliberation. This relates to the opinion of undermining the other government branches, thus preventing a tyranny. Often many people believe the Electoral College keeps the two-party system in place, and the third parties out of the election. Therefore, it provides our country with stability. The system also allows states to have freedom in designing their own laws regarding voting, thus offering them the ability to effect

The electoral college ensures that small population states are still guaranteed a strong voice in the government, but it may actually grant certain smaller states too much power. Overall, it seems like the electoral college helps to protect the interests of smaller groups and states. The bill of rights guarantees Americans certain freedoms that cannot be legally taken away from them. This also promotes a more efficient and uniform legal system. Voter turnouts have become a key issue, as they key dropping lower and lower. As a result, voting needs to become easier to incentivize more people to participate in government.

Having the Electoral College in place ensures that smaller states have a significant say on the outcome of the election. The electoral votes placed on these less populated states in some instances can be the deciding factor in an election. Furthermore, the Electoral College forces there to be a two party system. Without the two party system, we would have a chaotic system of government with extreme changes in policies from one administration to another. In addition, the Electoral College requires that there is a distribution of votes rather than a candidate being able to focus on a single region of the country. Our country is very diversified in its people and we need a president that can represent most, if not all of the people rather than a president who only represents a few people. Our generation now must step up and take responsibility. We must educate ourselves on the issues that our country faces, and how we can solve those problems. It will not be easy, but if we want to get it done, we will find a way. We must take it upon ourselves to run for public office and make changes that will positively affect our country. On fivethirtyeight.com it says “About 57 percent of eligible voters cast ballots this year, down from 58.6 percent in 2012 and 61.6 percent in 2008” As I said before, that means that about forty percent of eligible voters in the past twelve years have decided not to