Electoral College Should Be Abolished

How would you react if you learned that the Presidential candidate you had cast your vote for, had actually received more of the popular vote than his competition, but was not elected the next President of the United States? Every four years in November over 90 million Americans vote for the presidential candidates, then in the middle of December the president and vice president of the United States are actually elected by the votes of only 538 citizens. Wouldn't you think there was an obvious flaw in the system? I would be willing to bet that the majority of you would, but in the case of the Electoral College apparently the majority doesn't count.

Some people may believe that having the electoral college takes away the rights and needs of the states, but it does the complete opposite; it allows the president to meet the state’s needs and give them the power that is promised “The Electoral College makes sure that the states count in the presidential elections. As such, it is an important part of our federalist system...”(Document C). Document C shows us that the states are represented and have been represented for centuries due the to system in which certain powers are given to the states in order to keep the federal government in check. Consequently our states rely on the Electoral College to

Your vote should mainly matter! Yes, the electoral college should be abolished. The delegates did not believe the president should be chosen by a direct population vote (of the people). They didn’t trust voters would have enough information to make a good choice. The Electoral College is where the president and vice president are chosen indirectly. This system is where all states and the District of Columbia get one electoral vote for each of their US senators and representatives. Also, each state has a slate of electors for each presidential candidate. Another way this system works is by winner-take all method. The winner-take all method is where whichever candidate wins the most votes in the state, wins the state electoral votes. Lastly a candidate must receive a majority (one more than a half) of the electoral votes to be declared president. That is how everything goes in the electoral college. The electoral college should be abolished because 12 states and D.C. total have double the amount of electoral votes but less people than Illinois. Also, the winner of the 1876 presidential election isn’t what people wanted, it was based on the number of electoral votes. Another reason the electoral college should be abolished is that the states with the same representatives dont have the same number of voters. All these issues that continue to happen, need to be resolved by getting rid of this system.

A debate has been brewing in recent years about the way we elect our president. The first system is the Electoral College which is very complicated. Americans are not knowledgeable about it and worry that one candidate can win the popular vote and not the Electoral College. The opponents of the Electoral College propose a new plan called the National Popular Vote (NPV). The pro-Electoral College party think the bill’s risks and costs are not worth the possibility of some gains for certain states.

American voters do not directly vote for the President. When voters go to vote on Election Day to select who they think the next president should be, we are not actually voting for a candidate directly. We are casting our support for a candidate and a group of “electors” who directly submit the votes to determine who the next president will be. (Green) We, as people, do have a right to vote for our president directly, and we are. Members of the electoral college have to be elected and this happens once voters cast their vote for a candidate for president. These are not random people, we elected them. We need to look further into the issue to see that there is a reason for the Electoral College. We need to see the method to the Electoral College’s madness. This is why although some say the electoral college is unfair and corrupt, it

I believe that the United States should abolish the Electoral College. One reason the Electoral College should be abolished is it makes it look like candidates win by a lot more than they actually do, because of the electoral votes. Document B proves that the Electoral College should be abolished because it provides two different elections pie charts, comparing the popular vote and the electoral vote. In the first elections pie chart, the election is between Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and John B. Anderson. For the popular votes Ronald Reagan gets 50.7 % of the votes, Jimmy Carter gets 41% of the votes, and John B. Anderson gets 6.6% of the votes. It is easily seen that Ronald Reagan had won the popular vote but by very little in comparison to Jimmy Carter. Then in the pie chart for the electoral vote, Ronald Reagan had 91% of the votes, Jimmy Carter had 9% of the votes, and John B. Anderson had 0% of the

Do you think the Electoral College should be kept? No, because the Electoral College may keep the candidate that won the popular vote from winning the election. Should the Electoral College be taken away? The Electoral College should be abolished because, if someone was to win the popular vote but, the other candidate was to win the Electoral vote, that candidate would most likely to win the election. Another reason is if the election came to a tie then the people’s vote wouldn’t count and there would be no reason for anyone to vote anymore, and because some of the states are bigger than others and have more people living in that state. That state will get more Electoral votes.

Most Americans are confident on who they vote for during elections. With the upcoming election people have strong opinions that they stand by when dealing with the candidates. We as proud citizens vote because we believe that our candidate should be in office and in charge of our country. That is why it is hard for people to hear that most people’s votes do not actually do anything. The Electoral College decides the candidate for us without the public even knowing. That is why the Electoral College needs to be fixed or disbanded.

A debate has been brewing in recent years concerning the way we elect our president. The first system is the Electoral College, which is complicated. Americans are not knowledgeable about it and worry that one candidate can win the popular vote and not the Electoral College. The opponents of the Electoral College propose a new plan called the National Popular Vote (NPV). The pro-Electoral College party contemplates the bill’s risks and costs are not worth the possibility of gains for certain states. The NPV believes that the US should adopt the National Popular Vote. NPV achieves well in making a clear and concise argument on why the Electoral College should be replaced. The first item that NPV discusses is the shortcomings of the current system. A smart move to describe everything that is wrong with the Electoral College and then immediately follow up with their idea. NPV displays how that the winner-take-all system is the root of the problem. The system allows for candidates to ignore states and candidates to win without popular vote nationwide. The argument is unblemished in the essay, but in the next essay that we read the author says NPV is promoting winner-take-all. Which is creating a problem on both sides of the argument and discredits, causing a weakness. NPV states, “presidential candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, or campaign in states that they cannot possibly win or lose” (Rourke, 145. Their argument is also supported by bringing up

It’s November 8th, and you are finally old enough to vote. You head to the nearest voting station and check the name of the person you think is most fit to be President of the United States. Heart filled with excitement, you put on your ‘I voted’ sticker and head home to watch the election unravel. Your state’s votes were finally counted, and the presidential candidate you voted for lost by 1%. Your heart sinks as you realize all electoral votes for your state will go to the opposing candidate, and 48% of your population’s votes will be silenced. The Electoral College should no longer be used to elect the President of the United States, because it is an outdated method that makes the votes of the people diluted and unequally distributed across the country.

"The Electoral College is widely regarded as an anachronism, method of selecting a president that ought to be [overruled] by declaring the candidate who receives the most popular votes the winner" (Posner Richard 15). The electoral college is not fair for the people of our fine country. The residents of the United States of America live in a democratic country where they have the right to elect their leader, the electoral college prevents that. I believe that the electoral college should be disbanded because it goes against the people's democracy.

The Electoral College, a hot topic these days, is subject to both criticism and defense. To understand why either side is valid we must look at its values and its weaknesses, its pros and cons. In defense of the Electoral College we can see that it in its roots the Electoral College was devised to dole out the power of selecting our executives geographically, and to give otherwise marginalized portions of the U.S. population a voice. Adversely the Electoral College can be seen as an obstruction to democracy and the will of the people. Whether or not the Electoral College serves the best interest of all the people in United States is up to debate. Whether or not the Electoral College serves the best interests of all the people in United States is up to debate, and this paper functions to expose what validities either argument may include.

The electoral college system is unnecessary at this point in time. When the electoral college system was thought up in the 1700s by the framers of the constitution, they believed that electors to represent the peoples’ vote would be more efficient since it was extremely difficult to get information to and from places quickly, meaning that citizens would be late on news. To to combat that, the framers created the electoral college system, a system where electors elected by a political party would represent the peoples’ vote, gather in Washington, and vote on their behalf. Because of the lack of technology, this method wasn’t a bad way to vote for presidents efficiently. But technology improved, negating the problem of Americans not knowing the news in Washington and concerning their candidates. Today, Americans have access to current and reliable news regarding their candidates and are generally up-to-date with politics. So with the technological advances present today, why do we still employ an electoral college to vote for our next president? There isn’t a pressing reason to keep it.

Democratic theorist, Robert Dahl once said, “…every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.” This quote greatly summarizes what the Electoral College system means; every person in the United States is guaranteed one vote. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to elect who serves in the government, and we are given that opportunity through this system. This is what the Founding Fathers came up with in order to solve the problems they faced over 200 years ago. However, some have opposed this system is not fit for this democracy, and argue that other systems would work more fairly. On the contrary, I strongly believe that the Electoral College system should be kept because it is the fairest way to elect the President.

Since the first United States President was elected, the United States has used a voting system named the Electoral College to elect the President. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the delegates considered various voting systems but settled on the Electoral College System the United States has today (“How the Electoral College System Works” 2). The voting process was added to the Constitution and with a few slight reforms the system was never questioned in depth. With only slight conflicts with the Electoral College in the early 1820s and late 1880s, the system would be in the public eye for brief system until the news cycle passes. A few centuries later and a new generation endured the election of 2000 where the Electoral College played a vital role in the election. Sixteen years later and another election was impacted by the Electoral College. Today where news spreads across the country in seconds, the discussion of the election process is ongoing and reforms are being proposed to change the system. With the population of the United States migrating to big cities another election where the winner of the presidency loses the popular vote is bound to occur again in the Twenty-first Century. The discussion will continue and another outrage is imminent. The system has reasoning and rationale for the Electoral College that must be explained to end the argument of repeal. The Electoral College should be preserved as the voting system of the United States.