The Electoral College: How it works
Axia College University of Phoenix
How do we elect the President? Many people do not understand the process by which we elect the President. They do not understand how the Electoral College works. Bill Stern (Andrews, 1996) said, “Our elections are free, it's in the results where eventually we pay.” Oftentimes, people vote based on public opinion or information obtained by the media. Voters should inform themselves on how the Electoral College works in order to make good decisions when voting for the president. 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…show more content… The graphic shown below shows how states with higher populations like California, Texas, New York, and Florida can have a huge impact on the final election results.
Figure 1
Number of Electoral College Votes by State
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Note. From U.S. Electoral College 2000 Presidential Election. Delegate selection for the Electoral College happens in a variety of ways. Each state decides how it selects its electors. Currently, every state allows its electors to be chosen by popular vote. The political party usually nominates electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party’s central committee. Political parties select electors to recognize their service and dedication. These electors are state-elected officials, party leaders, or people with a personal or political affiliation with a candidate. Some states show the electors’ names on the ballot others do not. Voters should research the process of selecting electors in their state and for their political party. Voters should inform themselves on what their ballot format is before National Election Day. When we vote for a pair of candidates on a ticket, we are selecting a group of electors to serve in the Electoral College. There are many controversial arguments regarding the Electoral College. After the controversy of the 2000 election, people across the country wanted to do away with the Electoral College. Many people
The Electoral College
Technically speaking, the citizens of the United States do not elect their president through a direct vote, but by electing 'electors' pledged to vote for a candidate. Each state has a different numbers of electors. The Founding Fathers hoped that after a period of reasoned consideration, these electors would vote for the best candidate. Thus, technically the electors could subvert the popular will. The evolution of the Electoral College was a slow one. Today, "under the winner-take-all
Write an essay that explains how the Electoral College works. How does the Electoral College shape the strategy of candidates? Why is it harder to win presidential elections post 1968?
Every four years, on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, millions of U.S. citizens go to local voting booths to elect, among other officials, the next president and vice president of their country. Their votes will be recorded and counted, and winners will be declared. But the results of the popular
What can the government do to get more people involved in politics; why not end the electoral colleges? In America during election mouth, many U.S citizens state that their votes do not matter; consequently, half the population that is able to vote do not show up to vote. According to Gregory Wallace, CNN Politics Video Producer explain that during 2016, “Voter turnout this year dipped to nearly its lowest point in two decades.” What Wallace mean by this is that “126 million votes already counted
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, yet Donald Trump is president because he won the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the system that the United States of America uses to elect the president and vice president. A couple of groups have a problem with how the Electoral College currently operates with people like Barbara Boxer, a California Senator, stating that “94% of campaigning by the presidential candidates in 2016 took place in 12 states. That was it. Two-thirds of these general election
Outdated political system: Get rid of the Electoral College
Harvard, Stanford, and Cornell College are all renowned colleges, but have you heard of the Electoral College? It has been in existence for over two hundred years. This is a unique college where the only requirement to participate is that one must be at least eighteen years old. The Electoral College has no campus, meal tickets, football team, or even academics. However, it is the most important college because it helps the American people make
What is the electoral college? For those of us who are just starting out to vote and for the ones that just don’t pay attention to how elections work, which is most of us. You will be surprised to know that you as a voter don’t vote for the President or Vice-President directly. At the polls, voters choose which candidate receives their state’s electors. Then, those electors are the ones that vote directly for President. The electoral college was established in 1787 and has been used ever since. Over
a democracy, but how democratic are some of the components of our system of government? For example, the Electoral College is used when selecting the president of The United States, but the founders developed the Electoral College based on a theory of how it should work with no practical, real-world example of how it realistically works. Based on the three core principles of democracy which are popular sovereignty, political equality, and political freedom, the Electoral College falls short when
The Electoral College is the fundamental way the President of the United States is put into office. Despite being such an important aspect of our government, many Americans do not understand what the Electoral College does in relation to the voting process. In the podcast “Should we abolish the Electoral College?,” Alex Keyssar, an American historian and professor of history at Harvard, and James Ceaser, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, discuss arguments for and against the
the Electoral College
Even though the Electoral college worked in the past it isn’t working for the present. The Electoral College was created to help elect a president. How that works is the 50 states are assigned so many voting representatives depending on population in that state. This worked in the past due to most states population was equal but in present times its not so some states have more of a say so in electing the president of The United States. Even though the Electoral College worked
Electoral College vs. Popular Vote
When given this assignment I had no clue what topic I might choose. I waited and waited until the recent elections blew up in my face. This past election was a learning experience for me because I just turned 18. This was the first year I could ever vote and a weird election like this occurred. I noticed how many people were actually very disturbed with how Gore won the popular vote but will most likely lose the election only because he couldn't win