Essay about The Electoral College

Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.

The system is obsolete owing to the new methods of research and becoming aware of issues as well as faster sharing of information for the Americans to know any presidential candidate. Besides, United States of America has witnessed growth almost in every aspect of life and has shown the ability to handle new developments articulating the strength of the country to establish and manage a new electoral system. The reality that most of the states do not have laws requiring electors to vote according to the will of their state, the electors are unbound thus the system create the possibility of rogue electors. Also, the system presents a situation where the presidential election winner is determined by the House of Representatives causing disenfranchising a significant number of voters.

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 enough electoral votes in one state.

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 campaign events took place in 6 states.” (Congressional Digest, page 21). The idea that the Electoral College and presidential elections is ignoring the majority of the states has spurred different groups to attempt to reform the Electoral

Most states are always republican or democratic in the way they vote. So the amount of votes is already in favor of one candidate or another before voting actually arrives.(Document 7). Since the candidates are always insured a certain number of votes, the candidates only have to worry about “swing states” or states that change their decisions every election. Since the non-swing states never decide in favor of one candidate or the other by themselves the power to elect a new president resides with whom the citizens of swing states vote for. Without an electoral college, each citizen's vote would be worth more and everyone could help determine a new president instead of the select few who are living in “swing states.” All of these reasons help to make it clear that the electoral college is a corrupt

The Electoral College gained its origins when our countries fore fathers gathered at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and began brainstorming on different methods to elect a President. The Electoral College at the time was created to be a

It was created to allow all citizens to participate in elections directly while also giving smaller states some leverage and weight in the presidential elections. The electoral college also allowed constituents a chance to participate directly in the election for chief executive by voting for the electors, or people selected by citizens to cast electoral votes in the presidential elections. It also allowed for the smaller, less populated states to have more pull in the presidential election than they would if the president was simply elected by popular vote.

Established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Electoral College is a system utilized in The United States of America to select the President and Vice President. This process was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787, when the Constitution was written. The original purpose of the electoral system was to ensure that those who select the leaders of this nation were the most knowledgeable and informed people that America had to offer. The electors - the elected officials that make up the Electoral College - are elected to office through a general election wherein the entire national population has the right to vote. The President of the United States, however, is actually elected to office by the Electoral College only, regardless of the popular vote of the citizens in general. Thus, the Presidential election is the only federal election in our nation where the vote of the citizenry does not directly determine the victor. Despite the fact that this electoral system has been in place and operational for over two hundred years, the Electoral College is looked upon by some as an honorable system, whereas others view it as faulty. The Electoral College is not fair and equitable because it is based on population, it is not trusted by the people, and it is unjust to the wishes of the citizens.

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.

In order to fully understand the underlying problems of the Electoral College we have to look back at the time that the idea of the Electoral College itself was proposed and see how the culture of the time and the ideologies of the people involved helped shaped the final outcome. Life today is much different than it was two hundred odd something years ago, and it’s fair to say that the political ideals and social norms around our society have changed drastically.

Imagine two candidates running for the presidency of a country. They are both outstanding candidates, and it is a close race. Going into the days of the voting, no one knows who is going win the election, and become the president. When the votes are tallied it shows that one candidate received more overall votes from the people of the country than the other. He, obviously being the favorite of the people, loses the election. Many of the people of the country are confused why he lost the election even though he won the popular vote. The winning candidate won because the country he won the presidency of, uses an outdated and flawed voting system. This candidate assumes the presidency knowing that he does not have the support of more than half of the nation that he is now

In November of 2000, former president George W. Bush received 500,000 less votes than his opponent Al Gore, but was still elected president of the United States. This caused outrage, and confusion in many parts of the country, and brought to the forefront the question and validity of the Electoral College. Even though every four years the very important process of electing a new president takes place, the concept of the Electoral College is often misunderstood and an enigma to many. While the form of Government in the United States is frequently referred to by many people as a Democracy, and mistaken for a direct or pure Democracy, it is actually a Democratic Republic. The separation of powers was of the utmost importance to the framers of the Constitution, and is why the United States is a Democratic Republic, and the reason a system of electing a president by way of the Electoral College was created.

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 vote are not guaranteed to stand because the Electoral College has not cast its vote.

America is very different than the rest of the world. Most people would think that U.S citizens vote for the president directly, but It's actually a small group of people that a vote goes to. It is a complicated process of how the system works, but basically instead of voting for the president directly it is actually voting for electors who are supposed to vote for who you want. So basically you are not actually voting for president. Through the electoral college your vote actually counts 1.5x greater than if would in a direct election.

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.