The Importance Of The Outdated Electoral College

The Electoral College makes it possible for citizens’ votes in certain states to essentially not matter at all. Since all of the electoral votes go toward the candidate that wins the popular vote in a state, if a state has a majority of people who vote for a certain party and a voter votes for the other party, his vote does not have any effect on the election outcome. The Electoral College system is leaving hundreds of thousands of vote’s discounted and irrelevant. The Electoral College twists each vote’s worth per state, causing the nation’s desires to be misrepresented. The Electoral College does not always show a distribution of support. A candidate could win the electoral votes

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.

Every year on the fourth of November an election is taken place to select the next president of the United States. Just recently, in the 2016 election, Hilary Clinton won the popular vote and Donald Trump won the electoral vote, in which he was elected president. This made many Americans question if the electoral college system is outdated and unfair and if the direct popular vote is a more effective way of electing the president. This has happened twice where the candidate who has the popular vote did not win the presidency. The problem that has arisen is that the rules of the presidential election need to be replaced so that it will reflect the true opinion of the U.S. citizens. According to Edwards III, under the constitution, the

When the Constitutional Convention gathered in 1784 they had the difficult task of determining how our government should be assembled and what systems we should use to elect them. They quickly decided congress should have the powers to pass laws and the people should elect these people to ensure they are following the will of the people. But who should elect the president?

The Electoral College system has been in place for over 200 years and Americans are still not sure how it works or if it is the best system. Many Americans feel they go to the polls every year and vote for the president, and in the long run they are in control of the fate of our executive branch. With the 1992 election it was clear that many people had little understanding for how a president is chosen; the 1992 election came close to having no majority of electors due to Ross Perot and his third party. However, after this last debacle over the presidency, many people are crying "foul" even though they still understand little or nothing about the benefits of the Electoral College. We

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

In 2000, Democratic candidate, Al Gore and Republican candidate, George W. Bush ran for the position of the president of the United States. Al Gore won the popular vote but, since Bush won in the Electoral College he was elected president (Hall). This has not been the only time in U.S. history and surely will not be the last for a situation like that to happen. When the citizens of the United States vote for president they think each individual vote counts and their votes determine the winner. However, this is not necessarily the way our process works because of the outdated Electoral College.

I agree with Hayes, the electoral college is outdated. There is no longer a necessary role for it in the American Electoral System. The Electoral College was created since the government felt that the people would not know about the issues that they were voting on. Instead, they decided that the people would vote for a select group of candidates. The group of people that are being voted for are the caucus.The caucus member that wins their district casts their districts vote in favor of the candidate that won the majority vote .

Even though the Electoral college worked in the past it isn’t working for the present. The Electoral College was created to help elect a president. How that works is the 50 states are assigned so many voting representatives depending on population in that state. This worked in the past due to most states population was equal but in present times its not so some states have more of a say so in electing the president of The United States. Even though the Electoral College worked in the past, it needs to be change for the present and these reasons are; it gives bigger states more votes and is unfair to smaller states (Clayton)

The Electoral College is a process, not a place of schooling. The Electoral College is responsible for electing who will be our next president of the United States by compromising between electing the president by vote and electing the president by popular vote of qualified citizens. The electoral College should be abolished because it is an unfair and unnecessary way to choose the president. Each candidate earns points by winning individual states. Each state is worth a different amount of points based on population, added with the number of senators. There are 538 electors within the college. People are finding it a challenge to decide if the Electoral College should be changed or abolished. If it were up to me, it would be abolished, because if the president wins the popular vote, they get the majority of the citizens votes. This system is unfair because each state has a different number population, so each has a different amount of points. When I am eligible to vote, I want to be able to vote for who I want, the majority of my state’s population should not be able to decide. The Electoral College may be

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 with many processes in the government the Electoral College has continued to evolve. Therefore, the Electoral College operates differently today than in the past. Originally, State Legislators chose the electors this has to be amended due the introduction of politically parties in 1836. (Presidential Elections, 1789-1996, 1997). Due to the “Time, Place and Manner Clause” states are allowed to chose the method in which electors are chosen, so due to this before 1836 some states used Winner-takes-all and some didn’t. (Peacock, 2017). Instead of the vice president winning in conjunction with the president, the vice president was chosen whichever candidate got the second most electoral votes. This was updated also because of political parties

The 2016 presidential election was an example of the discrepancy between the Electoral College votes and the national popular votes. If the last presidential election had been decided by a national popular vote, then Hillary Clinton would have won the presidency because she had the majority of votes. However, due to the design of the Electoral College, Donald Trump won the election for president in 2016; although, he lost the national popular vote. Just as some people questioned the effectiveness of the Electoral College during some of the previous elections, several people questioned the effectiveness of the Electoral College again in 2016. The debate about whether the Electoral College should be kept or

The results of the recent election has brought criticism to the electoral college. Donald Trump did not win the popular vote, but he did win the majority of the states. Like many Americans, my first instinct was to criticize the electoral college. If Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, she should be the President of the United States. However, it is just not that simple. The electoral college still serves a valid purpose because it is currently the best way to represent the population during an election.

In 1787 the farmers at The Constitutional Convention put in motion The Electoral College system because of their belief that the average american didn’t have enough education/intelligence to directly pick the president, making the U.S.A. a representative democracy. In brief the Electoral System is made up of a body of repertentivates who were elected by the citizens and in return the electors are suppose to cast their votes on behalf of the people. The number of electors given,was established depending on the population of that individual state and each state is required to have no less than 3 electors. This election system has been in effect for a little over 2 centuries, and as time goes on both conservatives and democrats are coming to