The Presidential Election Day falls on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years in the United States. However, when Election Day is over the people are not who have done the electing. In the United States, citizens elect the president not by a popular vote but through the Electoral College. The Electoral College is comprised of five hundred fifty-three electors. There is one elector for every state senator and every member of the House of Representatives per state as well as three electors from Washington, DC. (Khan 2014) The political parties choose the electors. Most of the United States has adopted the winner-take-all system; this means the candidate who has fifty-one percent or more of the votes then …show more content…
The president-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as president of the US on January 20 in the year after the election. (Office of Federal Register 2014)
As a citizen of the United States we go to the polls and vote for the electors of the candidate we want as president…or do we? (Office of Federal Register 2014) Four times in the history of elections in the United States has a candidate has won the popular vote but lost the election due to the electoral vote. The first time was in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won both the popular vote and the electoral vote, however because in the four-person election no one won a majority of fifty percent in the electoral college, this allowed the House of Representatives to chose the winner…choosing John Quincy Adams who came in second behind Jackson in both votes. The second time it happen was in 1876, when Samuel J. Tilden won fifty-one percent of the popular vote and Rutherford B. Hayes only won forty-eight percent, the electoral college vote was 184-185, and a special electoral commission picked Hayes over Tilden. The third time was in 1888, when Benjamin Harrison won the election over Grover Cleveland with 233 electoral votes even though he had the lower popular vote. The fourth and most resent time was in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush won the Electoral College so won the presidency. Another discrepancy that has happen is the electors whom are supposed to vote in agreement with
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.
How would you react if you learned that the Presidential candidate you had cast your vote for, had actually received more of the popular vote than his competition, but was not elected the next President of the United States? Every four years in November over 90 million Americans vote for the presidential candidates, then in the middle of December the president and vice president of the United States are actually elected by the votes of only 538 citizens. Wouldn't you think there was an obvious flaw in the system? I would be willing to bet that the majority of you would, but in the case of the Electoral College apparently the majority doesn't count.
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.
At the end of every president’s term, a new president is voted on by the citizens in the United States. Each state can cast a vote on a presidential candidate for each senator and representative that they have in Congress. Through this process a new president is picked every four to eight years. This process is called the electoral college. The process of electoral college has been established and has been continuing since the approval of the Constitution. Even a century later after being created, the electoral college is still used today. Born out of the Constitution, the Electoral College is still obsolete; it should be abolished. Regardless, eliminating the Electoral College will likely never happen because of political parties.
Electing government officials is a major part of being an American. The citizens of the United States have the privilege of voting for their officials , representing America’s democracy. Although a big misconception on this is that the people actually do not vote directly for who becomes elected president but rather who gets to elect the next president. The Electoral College has been in place since 1804 and continues to be the system the United States uses to elect the president. The Electoral College is filled with history, a lengthy process , and questionable arguments on its validity.
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.
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.
All together, there are 538 Electoral votes. In December after the election, the electors cast their votes. When the votes are counted on January 6th, the Presidential candidate that gets more than half, 270, wins the election. The President-elect and Vice President-elect then take the oath of office and are inaugurated two weeks later, on January 20th.
As citizens of the United State of America, one of our most important rights is that of which to vote. By voting, the general population has a say in who its leaders are. Votes for local, state, and even federal representatives directly reflect who the constituents want in office. However, America’s highest office is not elected by a vote of the people. Instead we use a confusing and outdated system called the Electoral College. Our president is not elected by the people, but by 538 electors who can legally vote for whomever they choose. Several times in our nations history an elector has voted against the people’s will. Three presidents have been elected into office by the electoral college and
In the United States, the Electoral College determines the victor of a national election. Each state has its own number of electoral votes, which is determined by state population. This system is a “winner takes all” system. Which means the candidate with 50 percent or more of the votes in an individual state gets all of that states electoral votes. The 2016 presidential election will have 538 electoral votes, this means that the election will be decided who is the first candidate to 270 votes. Some people have seen this system as outdated and unjust. Many are looking at a way to change the system and others would like to do away with the system
The Certificate declares the winner and shows which elector will show your state at a meeting held in December. The meeting takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the election. Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6th. Then the members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to plan the official tally of electoral votes. The President and the Vice President determine the count and announce the results and the winner. Then the President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as the new President of the United States.
The Electoral College does not use the popular vote to directly decide who the next leader will be. It uses a system of electors who represent each individual state and the votes casts by the citizens of that state. In recent years, and particularly since 2000 there has been controversy about whether or not the Electoral College is still a valid way to elect a President. The major dispute regarding this process of election is that the winning candidate may not always be the one with the majority of the popular vote.
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
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.
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.