Electoral Scooters

Each state can have no less than 3 electors. This is because they get an elector for every chair they fill in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Because all states have two Senate members and at least one House member, we see why. All together, including all of our nation's states we have an Electoral College consisting of 538 members. In order for a candidate to actually become the President he must obtain at least 270 electoral votes, giving him the majority plus one (Glennon 19). Because we use the Electoral College, it has come to occur on numerous occasions that a candidate with a higher percentage of the popular vote is defeated by his political opponent by the electoral tally (Glennon 19), thus defeating the purpose of a Democracy. A Democracy exists if we the people have "the right to self- governance." "American 'democracy' has existed for over 200 years, and citizens are ready, as they have been for decades, if not centuries, to finally control their own country" ("Electoral College Problems"). Therefore the use of the Electoral College is completely useless and should be abandoned to the idea of the popular vote. If not completely thrown out, then altered by an amendment.

If the majority of Americans are voting for one president to take the power in the presidential office, than it does not make sense that the other candidate would win the election. However, the Bush versus Gore election was not the only time that a candidate with the minority of the votes to win. A similar election occurred in 1876 between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes. The Gale Encyclopedia of American Law states that “when the election returns came in on November 7, 1876, Tilden had clearly received the majority of the popular votes. However… with fewer than 48 hours before Tilden’s scheduled inauguration, the commission announced that Hayes had won the necessary electoral votes” (Gale Encyclopedia of American Law). The fact that Hayes won the presidential election with a minority of the popular votes is purely illogical and preposterous, because it does not accurately portray the opinions of the people. Because of the ability of a candidate to obtain the presidential office without the majority of the votes, the Electoral College should be abolished in America.

Since the electoral vote is partially based on the state’s representatives in the House, the most populated states have more votes. This can be evidenced above with the four most populated states in the nation, California, Texas, Florida and New York, having the four highest electoral votes in the nation. The question of to whom the state’s electoral votes go to is decided by an elector. An elector is someone who decides to which candidate the state’s electoral votes goes to, electors are instructed to award the votes to whomever wins the state popular vote. However, electors can go against these instructions. Most electors pledge to keep to those instructions but sometimes an elector will cast the state’s electoral against the instructions, these electors are known as “faithless” electors. Due to “faithless” electors, nine electoral votes have been cast against instruction since 1820. Thankfully, none of these votes changed the outcome of any election.

electors are chosen. All electoral votes in a state go to the candidate that gets the most votes, and

Though this would be unlikely in the present day, it is still possible. This past election of Trump versus Clinton has been one of the most entertaining for the electoral college due to the polar opposite candidates which is why the electoral college is being put into questioning. I believe the electoral college allows all states big and small, to have power. The electoral college creates a clear cut winner in cases where the popular is very close and allows smaller states and swing states to be noticed. Large states such as Texas and California may be large but since Iowa is a swing state, it allows candidates invest more into persuading that state to side with their political party. With this focus on the swing states, those states are able to get special benefits. I believe keeping the electoral college exactly the way it is currently for the 2020 election is the best system with the least amount of flaws and shouldn’t be abolished or amended.

In 1972 President Richard Nixon was running for his second term in his presidency. Nixon was running against Democratic Candidate George McGovern, a senator from South Dakota. In his first term Nixon inherited the Vietnam War from President Johnson and for his second term Nixon wanted to win big and try to take attention away from losing the war. Nixon’s re-election committee decide to assign G. Gordon Liddy to find out information and tactics from the Democratic National Committee and they wanted to know more in their Chairman Larry O’Brian.

What happens if no candidate gets the required number of electoral votes? (This has only happened three times in and all were in the 1800’s)

This system needs to be put to an end. The American people are well enough informed to elect their own president without the aide of an Electoral College. The electors in the Electoral College do not actually make decisions anyway. They are just figurative for they should vote along their state’s popular vote, even though most are not legally bound to do so. Even though the electors’ votes reflect that of their state’s popular vote, the views of the people are not always represented. If one candidate receives 50.1 percent of the popular vote, and the other candidate receives 49.9 percent, the candidate with only .2 percent more of the popular vote receives all of that states electoral votes. This system is also very unfair to the third party candidate. He/she has very little chance of receiving any electoral votes. In 1992, Ross Perot won 19 percent of the national

The Constitution of the United States of America created a system called the Electoral College where it outlines the rules in which we elect the President of the United States of America. As stated in Article 2, Section 1 of the U. S. Constitution created the Electoral College. Each state receives as many electoral votes as it has senators and representatives. Therefore, each state, including the District of Columbia, will have at least three electors. This is the vision of the Constitution. Now the problem arises when all the Electoral votes from one state are given to the popular winner for that state. This causes a with people’s right to chose their leader as votes of the people that voted for the losing candidate are tossed in the trash. All this while giving the state the ultimate power to elect the president.

Nixon defeated Voorhis with sixty percent of the vote, and upon taking his seat in Congress, he

The 1970s was an eventful time in United States history. During the decade citizens saw positive actions committed by government officials such as ending the Vietnam War and negative actions such as the Watergate scandal. Notable, the United States documented an “unreported resistance” among its citizens. The “unreported resistance” was made of the numerous American men and women who did not support the government actions at the time. They protested nuclear plants, government munitions deals with Nicaragua, and they were not accurately represented in voting.

Richard M. Nixon was a former vice president who barely won the election in 1968 against Hubert Humphrey for the Republican party. Once in his presidency, President Nixon pleased and displeased citizens in the United States. He was not necessarily the most liked president, but he was not the most disliked either. By 1972, it was time for the

The commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico), known to most Americans as simply Puerto Rico, exists as one of two territories owned by the United States1. Being a territory of the United States, Puerto Ricans possess common citizenship, currency, and defense. However, even though Puerto Ricans are United States citizens they do not pay any kind of federal income taxes. Therefore, they cannot vote in presidential elections. Puerto Rico is under the jurisdiction of the United States customs, and are allowed free movement of people and merchandise with the United States. They have established their own constitution, and have a greater amount of independence than possessions. Although

The representatives do not have to vote for what the people wanted. The people of that territory are actually trying to pressure there representative into voting for what the people want. Each state determines there number of Electoral College votes depending on the states size of population determined by the Census. Each state is also allowed to always have two because of the U.S. Senators. For an example, Kentucky has six Representatives and two Senators: therefore Kentucky has eight electoral votes to help choose a President.

As a consequence, third parties are unable to gain this vote, even if they win a high percentage of votes nationwide. (Abramson, P. 1995. Pg. 352) Perhaps this is the result of American citizens assuming that the candidates from the two major parties are going to win the seat due to incumbency or the assumption that they two major parties are the strongest. (Lowi, 2014. Pg.