Electoral Process

The Electoral College, unique to the United States, is where presidential electors from each state meet up after the popular election and cast ballots for the president and vice president (40). The Electoral College is essentially a compromise for the presidential election between the popular vote and the vote by congress. The United States election works through indirect elections; Americans go to the polls and voters will chose among slates of electors who are selected by the states party leadership. In the majority of states, the party candidate who obtains the popular vote will win all electoral college votes for that state, this is often called the “winner-take all” system. Electors in the Electoral College is comprised of 538 electors

Getting to polling locations can be a hassle, especially for the disabled, the sick, and people without transportation. In addition, voting becomes even more difficult for

the framers of the constitution debated many options for determining how the President of the

The Electoral College is a group of people who are “appointed by a larger group” of people to represent each state in the U.S. who then vote for the presidential elections (Dictionary.com 2015). The founding fathers created the Electoral College so that qualified citizens could vote for the president. They believed that the average American is uniformed, so they decided that a few educated people would make the correct choice for the entire population. The founding fathers also thought the Electoral College would be effective because at that time the only way of communication was through word of mouth and through letters. With the Electoral College, it was a more simple way to get the votes to one place and count them. A major criticism of the Electoral College is the popular candidate may lose to the electoral vote. This means that if majority of the population voted for candidate A, but majority of the electoral votes were for candidate B, the president of the nation would become candidate B. This situation has occurred four out of the fifty-six presidential elections that have been held in the United States. I believe that the Electoral College should be abolished so that the popular candidate would win the election, people would feel that they are making a difference in the society they live in, and we should replace the Electoral College with popular choice or allow our house of representatives to vote for the presidents instead.

In presidential elections, citizens do not actually vote for the candidate of their choosing, instead citizens are voting for electors known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College chooses a President, and Vice President. The Constitution gives each state a number of electors that equals the number of House of Representatives and Senate, which totals five hundred and thirty eight and also includes three electors for the District of Columbia. Each state receives a certain number of electors based on population size. The results in a state determine which electors are chosen. All electoral votes in a state go to the candidate that gets the most votes, and after state elections appointed officials certify the popular vote of each state. Two hundred and seventy votes are needed to elect a President; the candidate with the majority of the votes becomes the president.

The Electoral College is one of those things that differentiate the American electoral process from the rest of the world. It is an old institution that has been fundamental to the American political system ever since the Declaration of Independence. There have been calls to disband this way of voting to join the rest of the world with the ordinary populace voting. During the month of November in a presidential election year, every state holds an election in which all citizens who qualify may participate. They cast a ticket for president and his vice president. After this voting, the winning party is allowed to choose a slate of

I agree with that the Electoral College System should be done with. My reasoning for this is in any presidential election, the Electoral College is above the votes of the people of the United States of America. All that a candidate needs when they run for an election is 270 out of the 538 votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency. The Electoral College System over runs the election. It pushes aside the votes of the people and consequently decides who is going to be president for themselves. They say that the American people have a choice in who becomes their president, but it only takes 270 out of 538 of the Electoral College to choose the next president of the United States of America. If the Electoral College chooses who is going to be the next president then what is the reason for the American people to vote? There is

Certain philosophies of the Electoral College infringe on the democracy that the United States of America stands for; however, the Electoral College was put in place by the Founding Fathers for a reason, and under the Constitution that reason should be respected. American Democracy suffers under the overbearing nature of this voting system, but it is a fact that a pure democracy would never work. Under this system, there would always be an inferior minority. Reforming the system is a solution to this problem of whether or not the Electoral College should continue or cease to exist. There should still be a system of electors, but instead of the warped winner-take-all system, the votes should be given proportionally to the popular vote. This

The American Electoral College is the most confusing part of the American government. In addition, Kenneth Davis, author of Don’t Know Much About History, noted, “Grown men turn weak and stammer when asked who makes up the Electoral College.” However, there will be an effort to clear this enigma up for those who “turn weak and stammer” (2011, p. 653). America’s election system is important because their citizens need to know what they are doing on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The Electoral College has an interesting structure, procedure, and history, while also serving America well.

Five of the fifty-eight total United States Presidential elections in history have ended in discrepancies between the popular vote and the electoral vote; on average, the president elected into office was not actually favored by the majority of Americans almost ten percent of the time. We need to acknowledge the fact that this, along with the Electoral College system as a whole, undermines our foundation in democracy. Additionally, the Electoral College is based in slavery and oppression and is therefore not indicative of the social progress that America has made since the Constitution’s ratification. Because of this, I am proposing an amendment to eradicate the Electoral College and instead elect presidents by direct popular vote. This would end an antiquated, obsolete, and arguably undemocratic practice that continues to plague us despite centuries of progress as a nation.

The office of the President of the United States is designed differently than many other nations “rulers”, however, it is quite similar to the government in Mexico. In the United States, the President has to go through a selection process to become the candidate of their chosen party. The registered voters in America select a party to vote for and vote for that party’s nominee. The nominee then campaigns for the general election, where the registered voters vote for Electoral College votes to elect the next president. The winner is the President with the most Electoral College votes (even if they do not win the popular vote) (Ellis 25-71). Similarly, to electing the President of the United States, the process to elect the president of Mexico

The Electoral College was established with the best of intentions of representing the American people; however, over time, this antiquated system has failed the American people. The people of the United States deserve better as the Electoral College is no longer a representation of the nation’s voices and concerns. Instead, the political machine has corrupted this deep-rooted system with each modification. The way the people of the United States elect the President and Vice President, requires an update for this timeworn democratic process.

Is it possible for a presidential candidate to receive the most popular votes and still not be elected president? Many Americans are shocked to discover that the answer to this question is yes. The Founding Fathers were not the strong advocates of democratic rule that the average American has been led to believe. For proof of this one needs to look no further than Article II of the United States Constitution. In Article II one will find the details of the Electoral College system, a system which denies the power to elect the president to the American people. (The Constitution)

The electoral College was developed at the first constitutional convention in 1787 by James Wilson. The idea of the electoral college was influenced by how Rome would elect the Pope around the same time. During the Constitutional Convention they bounced around several ideas on which way would be most effective to elect a president. The number of electors was dependent upon the number of people in that states senate, (will always be 2) and the number of the people that state had in the House, (which fluctuates every decade depending on that states census.) Choosing the electors was left up to the state, but to avoid the college choosing a “favorite” they had to cast two votes, one of which had to be for someone out of their home state. The electoral college was originally designed for use without political parties and without national campaigns,both of which we have today. While the electoral college was a good system for the original thirteen states it was developed for, there needs to be a better or more direct way to elect a president of the united states.

Besides that, there were complaints about the use of indelible ink in the 13th general Election. Oppositions and clean-polls activists reported that the ink could be easily washed off (Election ink under scrutiny in Malaysia, 2013). To avoid the issue of phantom voters and to reduce human error when checking the voter’s information during the election a new modern polling