Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

First off, what is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is the process put in place by our Founding Fathers in which America votes for its President and Vice President every four years. The Electoral College was put in place to help prevent abuse of power and corruption by having a separation of government. The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state based on how many Senate and House of Representative delegates that state has. These numbers range from 3 to 54 with the total number of electors being 538. This system has taken much scrutiny over time. According to Lenz and Holman, “The Electoral College may be the least-known and most misunderstood government institution in the American political system.”

The Electoral College has been instituted since 1787 and is a group of people that elect the United State President and Vice President. The United States citizens do not directly vote for the president, but their vote is considered by electors that have pledged to vote for the winning candidate. There are 538 electors which corresponds with the 100 senators and the 435 representatives plus 3 electors for the District of Columbia. An elector is nominated or appointed by their state’s party and are usually well connected. Congressmen and high ranking U.S. officials are prohibited from being electors. In most states they follow a “Winner takes all” format, where the elector votes for the candidate who wins the popular vote. The Electoral College systems is outdated and illogical for the present and should be abolished.

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

“I’m sorry we ever invented the electoral college” Al Gore. Many think the electoral college is a great thing, others? Not so much. If you’re unaware of what the electoral college is, it’s a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. There’s pros and cons of the electoral college, and by the end of this essay you may decide if you’re for or against it.

     Initially, different states adopted different methods for choosing their electors. Some states decided to have the state legislatures select the electors. Other states chose the district system, where the people of each congressional district select the electors. States also used the general ticket system where the winner of the popular vote for that state received all of the electoral votes(Glennon 12). Due to problems associated with the other systems, the general ticket system emerged as the dominating method for elector selection(Glennon 13). Today, all states choose their electors by the general

The decision on how to choose who these electors would vote for was left up to the states. Most states eventually decided to use the general ticket system where all of that state’s votes go to one candidate, whoever receives a majority of the votes in that state. The system for solving ties or failure to win a majority in the electoral college is to send the vote to the House of Representatives. There, each state is given one vote to cast for president. A vote is taken until one candidate has a majority.

The Electoral College is just an indirect election of the President of The U.S. The Author of the Constitution created it this way so it's calm and easy for people to choose. in each state the voters actually cast a vote for a block of electors who are pledged to vote for a particular candidate. These electors, vote for the presidential candidate. Each state is apportioned a number of electors equal to the number of their Congressional delegation.

The Electoral College is a constitutional system written in 1787, in this system “each state selects as many electors as it has representatives in Congress”, members of the college casts ballots for individuals, the individual with the most electoral votes becomes the President of the United States (Shelley 80). It is

What is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is a system that our Founding Fathers established in the Constitution in which representatives from the 50 states elect the President of the United States. The system begins with the people electing representatives to represent them, and then the representatives meet so they can vote for the next President and Vice President. The votes from each representative are then counted by Congress and are able to elect the candidate that has the most votes. According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (2013), “The Electoral College consists of 538 electors…270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.” Every state has an

Electoral College is a block, or weighed, voting system that is designed to give more power to the states with more votes, but allows for small states to swing an election, as happened in 1876. Under this system, each state is assigned a specific number of votes that is proportional to its population, so that each state's power is representative of its population. So, while winning the popular vote may not ensure a candidate's victory, a candidate must gain popular support of a particular state to win the votes in that state. The goal of any candidate is to put together the right combination of states that will give him or her 270 electoral votes.

The Electoral College is the process in which electors vote for the president of the United States.

Under the current system there are five hundred and thirty eight electors. Each state gets one elector, each representative, and a senator. A presidential candidate needs two hundred and seventy votes to win the election. The electors meet after the November popular election to cast their votes and officially elect the president. Electors may vote for whomever they wish. Each state's electoral votes are awarded on a winner take all bases.

Each state appoints a number of electors that equals the number of senators and representatives of their state. The popular vote determines how the electoral college of each state will vote. The candidate with highest amount of votes from the electoral colleges wins the election. This process of electing a president based on the majority of electoral votes began when the Constitution was written in 1776. Our forefathers designed this system because they felt it was the fairest way to govern.

What is the electoral college you may ask. According to Oxford dictionary, the electoral college is; “(in the US) a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” You may then ask, “but don 't i vote for the election of the president and vice president? The electoral college is a group of chosen electors that vote for whom they see fit as being our next president and vice president. Their votes are then counted by Congress. Each state has a certain number of electors. For example california has 55 while alaska has 3. In all, it is made up of 538 electors. How they’re chosen is political parties nominate electors at their state conventions. The electors are usually state-elected officials, party leaders, or people with a strong affiliation with the Presidential candidates. The state will then need a majority of 270 votes to elect the

One of my favorite phrases about the Electoral College is that “it is a process, not a place.” The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. The Constitution gives each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of its Senate membership (two for each state) and House of Representatives delegation (this is currently ranging from 1-52 since this is dependent on population). Most states in the U.S. are known for having a “winner-take-all” system. That system awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate. The electors meet in their states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. The President-Elect who wins the majority of electoral votes then will take an oath where he swears to run office and is sworn in as President of the United States. This happens on January 20th in the year following the election.