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
When Americans vote for president, they are actually voting for presidential electors, who are known as a whole to be the electoral college. These electors, who are elected by citizens of the United States, are the ones that elect the chief executive. The electoral college has shaped the past, present, and future of the United States ever since it was constructed by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The electoral college was created with fair and good intentions.
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.
the framers of the constitution debated many options for determining how the President of the
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 has been a major part of the American political system since its founding. This was first brought into question while the founding fathers were discussing the Constitution and the manner in which a president is to be elected. Thus, the Electoral College of the US was introduced. The requirements for the proper setup and execution of the electoral college is that every state has at least three representatives between two Senators and one Representative based on population which translate into the number of electoral votes. While using the college, forty eight states have the winner take all system where the candidate who has the most votes will get all of the votes from said state. This is one of many reasons to why the US needs to protect the establishment of the Electoral College. The main focal areas to why the Electoral College is a beneficial aspect of the political system is the ability to change with the people of the nation, the rapid pace to which the results are given to the public, as well as incorporating and
If the electoral college was abolished, then America would have a more pure vote. The electoral college delegates how much say a state has in government and limits some states while promoting the powers of others. The electoral college also has many deformities, including the winner take all system, a less pure vote, and a more concentrated support for a candidate from certain states that make it perfectly reasonable to abolish it.
The Electoral College was created in the beginning to make a buffer between the selection of a President and the population. It was also created so that the smaller states received extra power as to not be overpowered by the larger states. Currently, the Electoral College consists of 538 electors. The number of members in the House of Representatives and Senate decides the numbers of votes that a state receives. The District of Columbia however has three electors and has been looked at like a state for the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment (“U.S. Electoral College”). This system was first created by the founding fathers through fear that a person could manipulate the public in order to come to power. Therefore, a candidate running for presidency could win the run even if they do not win the popular vote. However, I think that the Electoral College is out of date and should be changed. This is because we, as a whole, are not fairly represented because we are only represented as a state, and not as each individual.
The political system many of us know today as the Electoral College is one that has been in place in our country for over 100 years. The Electoral College is a system that helps determine who is elected as President and Vice President during major elections. The Electoral College is the primary source of determining who is elected. This system although having withheld through the times and stayed in place is not effective to me, and can lead to unfair elections in the eyes of some American People.
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
When the Founding Father first wrote the Constitution the only way news got around were the newspaper and written works or word of mouth. In the 1700s most Americans were illiterate and only learned about candidates for president by word of mouth which isn’t the most reliable source of information. So they created the Electoral college to “protect” the American public from their own ignorance. This is an outdated notion for the modern American citizen and the Electoral College should be removed from the constitution in favor of the popular vote because the Electoral College is not the Democracy the framers worked so hard to create, it creates disparency in representation, and voter decisions ultimately don’t matter.
The Electoral College should stay the same because if neither of the candidates win the electoral votes the House of Representatives are able to select the new President. Therefore each state is allowed to choose who they want for President although if the candidate does not get 270 electoral votes the House of Representatives decide who the next President will be. Although the question is if the Electoral College should stay the same, be abolished, or be changed. However, keeping the Electoral College the same would be more simple because most people understand it and it has been working ever since the government started it.
1787 saw the creation of the Electoral College due to he public lacking enough knowledge to make an enlightened decision on whom to vote for. However, now things are much different in the 21st Century than they were in the 1700’s. Due to new technological innovations, we are able to actually look into our candidate and truly decide if he/she is the one we want to vote for. It for this, and many other reasons that the Electoral College is outdated and unfair, and the Government should shift to the more direct popular vote.
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?