Electoral College: How It Works And Why It Matters

The Electoral College was created in the beginning to make a buffer between the selection of a President and the population. It was also created so that the smaller states received extra power as to not be overpowered by the larger states. Currently, the Electoral College consists of 538 electors. The number of members in the House of Representatives and Senate decides the numbers of votes that a state receives. The District of Columbia however has three electors and has been looked at like a state for the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment (“U.S. Electoral College”). This system was first created by the founding fathers through fear that a person could manipulate the public in order to come to power. Therefore, a candidate running for presidency could win the run even if they do not win the popular vote. However, I think that the Electoral College is out of date and should be changed. This is because we, as a whole, are not fairly represented because we are only represented as a state, and not as each individual.

The Electoral College is the United States' archaic process of electing presidents. It was established in the Constitution as a compromise between election by Congress and election by popular vote. Each state is given a specific number of electors based on the number of its U.S. Representatives and Senators (NARA). This allows for over-representation of small states and under-representation of large states, while the winner-takes-all format followed by most states could result in a candidate winning the popular vote but losing the election (NARA). This has actually happened on four separate occasions, leaving four black marks on the nation's history (NARA). Despite these mishaps and constant calls for reform, the faulty system remains in

Electoral College delegates elect the President. Voters elect Electoral College delegates. The Electoral College was created as a compromise between election by Congress or popular vote

Every four years that a Presidential election comes to pass the Electoral College is responsible for the formal election of both the President and Vice President of the United States. As an example of an indirect election, where people in each state at large vote in order to decide which individuals will be delegated the responsibility of casting votes for President and Vice President in accordance with the popular vote of the state which has entrusted them to provide such representation, the Electoral College works to ensure that smaller states are not denied the right to have the equal power of influence in our national election for President (Neale, 2004). The Electoral College itself has been in existence since it was introduced

The Electoral College has been around since the ratification of the Constitution. Overall, 5 of our presidents have not one the popular vote. These presidents are John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, George W. Bush, and our current, “president”, Donald Trump. This is why the electoral college should be replaced because only specific states (swing states) end up determining the outcome of the elections, it is outdated for our new, advanced country, and already 5 presidents haven’t been the candidate people wanted more.

Given the timing, I thought it would be very appropriate to talk about this oft overlooked part of our political system. According to the National Archives, the electoral college is a group of 538 electors who decided who our president will be. It was created by the founding fathers as a compromise between a direct election and having congress select who our president would be. How does it work exactly? As the Huffington Post explains, when we go to vote on election day, we are actually choosing

Every four years, millions of people agonize over the media and news about 2 candidates for months until they wake up on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. Some of those people drive over to their specified polling building. They walk into a booth and place a vote on the next President of the United States including many other offices. Now, most of these people believe this is how our President is elected, strictly through popular vote. However, they are missing a crucial piece, one that can change the election entirely, and is known as the Electoral College.

The electoral college is not truly representative of the will of the people. Five times in history, the victor of the electoral college did not win the popular vote. Two of these instances have been in the last five election cycles. There is a very evident problem when the American people choose a president, but the poorly structured system elects a different one. Three million more people voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump which is almost the entire population of Oregon.

Electoral colleges were made as a ‘middle-ground’ between the president and the people. Hamilton had said this in the federalist papers, “It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice”. The system was to essentially stop presidents from being able to manipulate the people to their favors. Instead, members chosen by both parties vote for the presidency.

The Electoral College was set up in the Constitution to establish the procedure in electing The President of the United States. So one might ask themselves what the founding fathers reasoning behind establishing The Electoral College. The framers did not fully trust direct democracy; the founding fathers

The electing of a new President is a topic that many people have their own beliefs on. Some people believe that the electing of a President should lie in the hands of qualified citizens while an opposing group believes that this responsibility should fall into the hands of Congress. The Founding Fathers were made aware of these contrasting beliefs and thus established the Electoral College to satisfy registered citizens as well as members of Congress. While it has been around for years, the Electoral College usually goes unmentioned in the process of electing a president. Consisting of the selecting of electors, meeting of electors and the counting of the electoral

The process of how we elect a President hasn’t always been the same. The structure of the Electoral College evolved over time with the growth of political parties. In the first design, each state was given a number of electors equal to the number of its US Senators, which was two, plus the number of its US Representatives, which was based on population. State legislatures had the power to choose electors, so that the federal government wouldn’t have too much power. Members of Congress

In 1787 the Framers established a new voting system known as the Electoral College. (Brown) It is a group of electors chosen by the voters in every state to select the President and Vice President of the United States. The reason for its creation was because the founding father were terrified of direct election to the Presidency. They also had the interests of the small states and rural areas in mind and wanted to make sure they were protected. This is how the Electoral College works in five steps:

In 1787 the farmers at The Constitutional Convention put in motion The Electoral College system because of their belief that the average american didn’t have enough education/intelligence to directly pick the president, making the U.S.A. a representative democracy. In brief the Electoral System is made up of a body of repertentivates who were elected by the citizens and in return the electors are suppose to cast their votes on behalf of the people. The number of electors given,was established depending on the population of that individual state and each state is required to have no less than 3 electors. This election system has been in effect for a little over 2 centuries, and as time goes on both conservatives and democrats are coming to

The Electoral College, used to elect presidential candidates in the United States, has degenerated into an ineffective and inefficient system. Although the Electoral College had never been implemented before, the Founding Fathers nevertheless built America with this election structure, to not only experiment with this new technique but to hopefully find a solution to an election process that they expected would shortly involve millions of citizens. The Electoral College does include several beneficial advantages to the American election process, but for the most part, the Electoral College is a dysfunctional election method.