The Purpose 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 The Electoral College systems is outdated and illogical for the present and should be abolished.

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.

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

The Electoral College was created during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when the framers of the constitution debated many options for determining how the President of the United States would be chosen. The Electoral College was created to give smaller states a voice in the process of choosing a President for the United States. If a President was chosen through popular vote, people feared numerous candidates would be receiving votes and a candidate would win the most votes from a populous state instead of votes from smaller states. Another option for voting for the President was that Congress would

The Electoral College system was created in the constitution by the Founding Fathers. This system forms the beginning of the United States' national elections and is therefore, considered to be important to this country's history. It is made up of 538 members and a candidate must receive a majority of 270 electoral votes to win the election. Electors usually get selected to one of the presidential candidates running. When people go to the ballot on voting day and pick their favorite candidate, they are really choosing the electors for their state and then the electors are the ones that vote for the president. The Electoral College should be revised or abolished because it is both undemocratic, is not beneficial to the nation, and may weaken the validity of elections and the elected President.

To clarify how the college works, chosen by each state of the U.S., 538 electors vote for a president and their overall choice are actually guaranteed over the popular vote whose selections are not direct to electing a president. The candidate, with the assistance of their certain state, are voted for by the electors that make up the Electoral College (HowStuffWorks.com). Those who win the popular vote most of the time will get the support of the

The Electoral College was created in the year 1787. Before it was established, the men who drafted the Constitution also known as the Framers debated several formats for electing the president and vice president for the United States. One of the formats they were debating was to have the Congress choose the president however some felt that there may be corruption, inappropriate political issues and possible interference from foreign powers (Kimberling, W.C. 2008). The other format the Framers were debating were to have the State legislatures select president but it was also rejected because of fear that the president that is obligated to the State legislature have a possibility to wear down federal authority and underestimate the idea of the federation (Kimberling, W.C.

The electoral college is a process we have used since 1804 when the 12th amendment was passed. This process was used so that we would not have to use the popular vote because it gave an unfair advantage to the bigger more populated states. For a candidate to become President of the United States, he or she must be able to attain 270 electoral votes to become president-elect. Currently there are 538 members of the electoral college. These people will gather together in their states to vote for the next president of the United States. The electoral college is very important in the election process, it gives smaller states a voice in the election, as well gives the power of the election to the states.

Created then consolidated by our founding fathers, its purpose served to balance the power between the populous states and less populated states. However, there is another reason and that reason is the founding fathers did not want a direct democracy. While the Founding Fathers wanted the people to have a say, there was one concern with this. This concern was that a charismatic tyrant could rise in power and gain the popularity of the public through manipulation. It would be Alexander Hamilton, who would address this concern and many more in “The Federalist Papers”(Williams C. Kimberling). The idea behind the Electoral College was that the group of electors could be trusted in choosing a qualified person who would then become president. This could all be seen within the constitution. The constitution itself is an ingenious set of rules created by the founding fathers, which has led our country to this day, more specifically a different era. The founding fathers wanted the constitution to be America’s fundamental laws and inside these laws, existed a fair way in selecting the president of America, known to this day as the Electoral College. Originally, the way the Electoral College was set up had made it so the runner-up would usually become the vice-president. This was a huge problem as opposing candidates usually have differing viewpoints on running the country and would not work together

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

Electoral College delegates elect the President. Voters elect Electoral College delegates. The Electoral College was created as a compromise between election by Congress or 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

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.