Popular Vote Elect

As citizens of the United State of America, one of our most important rights is that of which to vote. By voting, the general population has a say in who its leaders are. Votes for local, state, and even federal representatives directly reflect who the constituents want in office. However, America’s highest office is not elected by a vote of the people. Instead we use a confusing and outdated system called the Electoral College. Our president is not elected by the people, but by 538 electors who can legally vote for whomever they choose. Several times in our nations history an elector has voted against the people’s will. Three presidents have been elected into office by the electoral college and

However, there have been several elections where the president did not win the popular vote, but still became president because the candidate received over the bare minimum of two hundred seventy electoral votes. Just recently the election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took place in November of 2016. As stated in the article, Time to End the Electoral College, “Hillary Clinton beat Mr. Trump by more than 2.8 million votes, or 2.1 percent of the Electorate” (Doc L). Hillary Clinton won the popular vote of the people but she never became president because she did not receive more than the required two hundred seventy electoral votes. The system that we are using today goes against our democracy and does not reflect the people's ideas on what kind of leader they want to rule the United States of America. In fact, the Electoral College favors minority voters and the majority is at a disadvantage in winning elections. Since the popular vote can’t win someone an election, many candidates choose to spend a large deal of time in states that have high numbers of electoral votes and are undecided on which party to vote for. It is up to the candidates to sway voters in these states to win all of the electoral votes with this winner take all system. These states are known as battleground states and are almost always the deciding factor in an election's outcome. In the

`Every four years our country elects a new president. Many people believe that when we cast our votes on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the way we cast our votes will determine who the next president of the United States will be. That belief, however, is not the case. The truth is that we are only voting for “presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College” (history.com). It is this group of people that actually elect to president. Each state is given a number of electors based on how many representatives they have in Congress, for a total number of 538 members of the Electoral College as of the time this paper was written. It is imperative that we maintain our Electoral College, so as to minimize

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

Activists and politicians alike have argued that the popular vote of the people should determine the President. However, more than 700 attempts to revise the constitution and do away with Electoral College have been denied. It is argued that if it was a direct vote then give power to individual states and put them on the Presidential campaign trail. “It takes 270 electoral votes out of 538 total votes in the college to win the presidency. That total equals the number of members each state has in both houses of Congress, with the District of Columbia getting three of its own.”

We can trace back the Electoral College to the 18th century when the United States was first founded by our Founding Fathers, when after our independence, we created a democracy that will give equal opportunities for the people and not give too much power to one person; therefore the Electoral College holds a great importance in our country’s political history. Located in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, this document states, “The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves…The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President…” Despite the importance of this process, many start to debate whether we should abolish the Electoral College or keep it. Some claim that, this process takes away the choice of an individual that votes for its candidate. While others claim that the Electoral College gives a fair chance to the voters that live in smaller states with less population. In order to make a clear decision. To make a clear judgment, one needs to go back and inform themselves on what is an Electoral College, understand why our Founding Fathers created this political role, know of their advantages and disadvantages as well to analyses wheatear this process is still necessary now in days.

We have a system of government called a Representative Democracy - where citizens vote for a representative to pass certain laws for them or elect president. Come election time, it can easily be mistaken or unknown, that we don’t in fact directly vote for president. America is not a pure Democracy, but a Democratic Republic or Representative Democracy where electors represent each state. When Americans vote for a president, they are actually voting for presidential electors or representatives. These people pledge to vote for the candidate that gets the popular vote in their state. How this about was through the proposal, known as the Virginia Plan, which “provided for a system of representation in the national legislature based on the population of each state,” (44, American Government, Power and Purpose.) The outcome of this proposal and debate was the Great Compromise. The amount of electors each of the 50 states have coincides with how many congressional members there are in each state. Every state has two senators and a delegation in the house of representatives based on the state’s population. For instance, California is the largest state with 53 representatives and 2 senators totaling it to electors 55 electors. Whereas, Hawaii, only has 2 representatives and 2 senators giving it 4 electors in total. Stated in the book, Social Education, vol. 72, p. 304, “Each state has the same number of electors as the total combined number of its senators and representatives in Congress; the District of Columbia also has electors, whose number is the same as the number allocated to the state with the smallest population (Wyoming, which has 3). A presidential candidate needs to obtain at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes to

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.

Many American citizens believe that when they vote they are voting for the President, but in reality they are voting for a group of people who then vote for the President. The elected people are decided by the popular vote for each state, but the number of people each state gets to elect is determined by representation in the Senate and House of Representatives. Every state automatically gets two electors (because there is equal

The United States, well known for its democracy, holds elections every four years to elect its President. Every American citizen over the age of 18 has a right to cast a vote in the presidential election. The voting process, although it seems easy and straightforward, can be very complicated. In the 2000 election, Al Gore captured the majority of votes, but George Bush won. The reason for this strange outcome and why Al Gore lost was because of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is voting system where different states are given a certain amount of votes in the election, and which ever candidate wins a state, is given that state’s votes. The Electoral College is out of date, and should be replaced by the Popular Vote system,

As of now, the president of the United States is elected by the votes of 538 electors instead of by the estimated 218,959,000 eligible Americans (Brain 1). This election method, which includes the use of the electoral college, is known as indirect voting. The opposing view, which is based on a popular vote, represents a direct vote by the people for President of the United Sates. The use of the electoral college has raised concerns by Populists claiming that it has reduced the importance of the individual vote (Lombardo 2). This argument is based on the fact that an elector can decide to vote against the popular vote of his state. This makes it possible for the candidate with a minority of the votes to win. Although it is evident that the electoral

The United States Constitution was signed and adopted as the nation's primary legislation in 1787. Since then, the U.S. has adapted and modernized through the centuries. Currently, the electoral system does not represent the political realities of the 21st century. The American people are adapting to an election system that guarantees their fundamental right to a meaningful voice in elections through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. It proposes that the presidency be decided by popular vote rather than through the electoral college. When voters are voting for a candidate, they are actually voting for the candidate’s electors through the Electoral College. This eliminates the popular votes as the deciding factor. In 1787, this was a necessary tool as the Electoral College could protect areas with a lower population density and inaccurate information leading to misinformed decisions. However, the population is significantly more well-informed; therefore, the United States is taking steps

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.

This system was Initially set as the forefathers were afraid of the “mob” meaning that they feared that a national popular vote would create a tyranny of the majority. However, this system is extremely outdated and no longer represents the people when electing their president. The electoral college can mean that the winner of the popular vote does not then win the presidency. An example of this is the latest presidential election where Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a total of approximately 2.9 million votes whilst trump won the presidency. This example goes part of the way to show how outdated and irrelevant the system has become.

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 system, the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes within a state wins all of that state's electors" (Kimberling 1992:6).