Popular Vote Persuasive Essay

The outcome of the 2016 election left many Americans feeling confused, angry, cheated, and terrified of the future. Somehow, the sexist, racist, homophobic candidate Donald Trump had become the nation’s president, though Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton received the majority of popular vote. This raised many questions over the constitutionality of the Electoral College system, and whether it was unfair to the people of the United States. In the electoral system, created by the Founding Fathers due to their lack of trust in the people, the constituents of each state vote for their preferred candidate, and all of the state’s electoral votes go to the candidate with a majority. Clearly, the Electoral

The founding fathers built our country on the fundamental rights of people. The first amendment protects the freedom of speech for all citizens including those of the minority population. The United States Constitution was designed to defend individual rights of American citizens against repressive governments and put in place a fair, democratic system. The current election process is being so heavily scrutinized because the Electoral College does not display the freedoms of a democratic system. During the election of President Trump, there was a circumstance in which Trump was able to win the Presidential election without the absolute majority. The Electoral College should be abolished because of its outdated and unfair guidelines that need to be followed in order to elect a president.

Does a United States citizen think that electoral college is democracy's safety net? The people of the U.S. have their own opinions about Electoral College. Some disagree on the topics that Electoral College discusses, and some agree. Most U.S. citizens should support the electoral college because it prevents majority rule, the US needs the electoral college more than ever before, and the intentions of the founding fathers held the abhorrence in the US.

Presidential elections in the United States have been run by the electoral college for centuries under the guise of a fair and free election, but people’s voices are still ignored. The electoral college is a body of electors that elects the president of the United States, but the voices of the people who they represent often become distorted in the process. The system used to elect the president should be a fair one that represents each person equally, but the electoral college is none of those things and has misrepresented the votes of the American people on multiple occasions.

Ideally, every citizen’s vote for President should be equal. But with the way the Electoral College distributes its votes among the states, this is not the case. Wyoming, for example, has one electoral vote for roughly every 200,000 citizens. California, however, only receives one electoral vote for every 700,000 citizens. This essentially means that a vote from Wyoming counts for 3.5 times more toward the Presidency than a vote from California. This is because the electoral votes are distributed unevenly among the states, giving small states one or two more votes than it actually should, and populous states like Texas, New York, and California are missing anywhere from five to ten electoral votes had they been distributed fairly. Also, it is easy to predict the winning candidate in a majority of the states. California and New York will always vote Democrat; Texas will always vote Republican, and so on. Candidates will often pander to a small number of swing states while ignoring the ones where they are either certain to win or certain to lose. This essentially leaves the entire outcome of the election up to the few swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and

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.

5 times in the past, the Electoral College has failed. Two of these events have occurred in the last 16 years. The winning of George W. Bush, and our current “president” Donald Trump. “In the 2016 presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by nearly 2.9 million votes.” If these many people wanted Hillary Clinton to become president over Donald Trump, it seems like common sense for her to become president. But things took a different turn. “ Trump received more votes in the Electoral College, 304 to Clinton’s 227, and so he became the 45th president.” This was a turn that no one expected, especially because the predictions showed Hillary winning, by about an 80% chance over Trump. But because of the system of the Electoral College, Trump was able to dominate Hillary in the race. The main reason Trump won the 45th presidency is that he won the swing states Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Swing states are very important because they usually end up determining the

In recent years, voter fraud has been a controversial topic. Many states have passed or have tried to pass laws that enforce strict Voter ID laws if a person wants to cast a vote in their state. Donald Trump has been someone who has spoken widely on the topic of voter fraud. According to Zeke J. Miller, a writer for Time Magazine, Trump has “repeated his unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud”. I personally do not believe voter fraud is happening this much in our elections and really think some politicians are looking for someone to blame when the outcome is not what they would have liked.

As of late the Electoral College has been looked down upon for their decisions in the 2016 election and many have considered doing away with it. If this were to happen, the popular vote would be the direct vote. Nonetheless, by giving the popular vote the most authority, it would be like giving a monkey a loaded gun: they wouldn't know how to use it and it can lead to many more minor problems that can easily be avoided with the help of the Electoral College. Giving the Electoral College too little or too much power would lead to unwanted disagreements. The Electoral College is best the way it is in view of the fact that the winner-takes-all distribution of votes, changes the victors small percentage margin to seem much larger, so it makes the candidate’s win more certain and legit (usnews.com).

Only 53.6% of eligible voters vote, leaving 46.4% not voting (“Political Participation in the US”). This 46.4% of people do not believe their votes count. They believe that the Electoral College system cancels out their votes and that the government will not listen anyway. People think that nothing will change due to the incumbency rate in Congress. That is where the people do not see what is really happening. Americans do not vote enough, so they cannot possibly make a change in government when they are not exercising one of their most powerful rights. Citizens of other countries yearn for the right to vote and Americans who fought so hard for this right do not even use it. “US voting rates are among the lowest in the developed world” (“Political Participation in the US”). Young people should be concerned with this issue. Because America has a democratic form of government, political participation is necessary, everyone’s vote counts, and corrections in government can only be made by the people first.

Today, there is a much greater amount of people and technology in the country than there was in the 1700’s. As America changed and grew throughout the years, the people have adapted to the new demands of life. For example, when the men went off to fight in World War I, it created a need for women to enter the workforce, and women have not left since. The same adaptation is needed in the presidential election because having an electoral college gives too much power to a lesser amount of people, with the increase in technology, we must adapt to new ways of voting, and the House of Representatives should not have the last word on who becomes president.

Many refer to the United States of America as a democracy: a republic that is of the people, by the people, and for the people; where ideals such as truth, justice, and equality reign. However, if one looks closer with a more cynical lens, they might find that this is nothing more than a half-truth. For America is not truly a democracy, as many say it is, but rather a strange mix of a constitutional republic with a dash of democratic ideals. Nowhere is it more evident that America doesn’t truly rely on democratic ideas than in the system of voting used to elect the “Leader of the Free World”: the Electoral College.

How would you feel if you voted for the democratic candidate and you found out that your vote went towards the republican candidate? Or if you voted for a republican candidate and learned your vote went towards the democratic candidate? Most people would likely be very upset, which is why they deserve to be informed about the reality of the electoral college. The electoral college may have been necessary to prevent fraud when our political and legal was first forming, but just as you can take of training wheels, we are at the point where we could abolish this system.

As important as the popular vote may seem, it is the Electoral College vote that decides presidential elections. The framers of the Constitution devised the Electoral College system because they did not trust voters who were spread out over 13 states to choose the head of the executive branch. Instead, they gave that responsibility to a group of electors who might better know who was best suited for that job.

Do you believe the electoral college is the ideal method to vote for the next president of the united states? I do not agree with this method of choosing the president and I think the popular vote should be the method of voting instead. In the Electoral College you vote for someone to vote the president for you which defeats the purpose of voting. Especially since that person legally doesn't have to vote for who you want. Also the electoral college makes voting more complicated which differs from the popular vote method which is easier by just counting votes and the winner would be who has the most votes. My last reason for abolishing the Electoral College and using the popular vote method is it would help other parties instead of just the Republican and Democratic parties. As third party candidates never won due to the electoral college being more helpful to the other parties.The electoral college is a complicated and not fair way of voting for the president. The process defeats the purpose of voting and most of the time helps only two parties which give the other parties a very low chance of winning.