The Electoral College Should Be Revised 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 Instead we use a confusing and outdated system called the Electoral College.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
Before one can pick apart the electoral college, one must understand the system. America has been acknowledged as being one of the world’s leading democracies, but to continue implementing the use of the Electoral College creates some distortion to that title. The out of date system does not accurately portray democracy. Theoretically, a democracy is government system that is ruled by the people. In reality, an individual’s vote may not matter depending on the state they reside in. Robert Dahl, a Democratic Theorist stated, “every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.” Political equality is important to the distribution of power. Even if a person is wealthy and of power their vote should be counted the same as someone in poverty.
The Electoral College is an excuse of the electoral process, proving itself to be undemocratic, false in representation, and harmful to third-parties. Therefore, the Electoral College should be abolished, and the process should rely on the popular vote to have the leading judgement in the election procedure for a new president. The Electoral College has proven that a candidate may not need to win the popular vote of the people of the nation in order to win the presidential election. But first, beforehand, let me introduce the system in which the Electoral Process is based upon. The Electoral Process is the government’s created system of indirect voting in order to elect the nation’s president.
Every time there is an election in the United States, the debate of Electoral College always heats up, and suddenly everybody seems to know about or at least they are interested in learning about it. The Electoral College is firmly established under the United States Constitution to elect the president and the vice president of the United States indirectly. A slate of “electors” are chosen from each state, and they are the ones responsible for voting for president in the general elections depending on which party the candidate is vying with. From this statement, what it means is that one does not choose his or her preferred leader directly and this has made many suggestions that the Electoral College is not a true representation of democracy. This paper will look at the strongest arguments for and against the Electoral College, analyze whether the current Electoral College should be re-engineered or scrapped in favor of direct vote and finally determine if the Electoral College is consistent or contrary to democratic principle.
The Electoral College is a group with too much power, so much power that they cause the average citizen’s vote for president to fail to be significantly substantial, and that needs quite a few changes. The Electoral College believes that they can accurately reflect not only the nation’s desideratum, the
This has been a controversy for ages. Does this give us freedom or take it away? Is our voice being heard? Election after election have brought new thoughts and situations to the table. In 2000 there was disappointment when the people thought they lost their voice. The question remains. Does
Throughout the past presidential election, and many others, the ideal of electing the president by popular vote has been at an all-time high conversation topic compared to previous years. While many argue that the Electoral College defeats the purpose of voting, and diminishes the majority’s voice, this is certainly not the case. Without the Electoral College, elections would quickly become, and encourage, radical and corrupt ways in their voting systems, that could possibly result in a detrimental nationwide political crisis of voter fraud, and a rise to direct democracy.
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,
The United States Constitution was signed and adopted as the nation's primary legislation in 1787. Since then, the U.S. has adapted and modernized through the centuries. Currently, the electoral system does not represent the political realities of the 21st century. The American people are adapting to an election system
Donald Trump supporters may believe that non supporters need to get over the fact that he won because we can’t change the results. But while we can’t change the results and maybe the protesting has gone too far, I don’t think anyone who believes in democracy should in their right mind let the results go. I only mentioned a few of the issues with America’s current voting system here. We need to make a change to the system to elect our commander in chief so that the people whether they be rich or poor all get represented by their voices; not the voices of a select
When it comes to voting for a president in an election, there are two factors that need to be considered: the popular vote and the Electoral College. Many people believe that the Electoral College provides absolute certainty of the outcome, but do the state electors actually provide a voice for the people? There is no doubt the people are the ones who vote for the electors so the desired vote could be made by them; however, the voters have no power over whom the electors decide to vote for. In reality, the electors are the ones who choose who will be president, not the people. Therefore, there should be a change to election by popular vote for the President of the United States so that everyone’s vote begins to count.
Since the beginning of U.S. presidential elections, the Electoral College has held the responsibility of choosing the nation’s next president. With 538 electors in the Electoral College, presidential candidates must win a majority of 270 votes from states across the U.S. to have victory in the general election. Forty-eight out
Over the course of this essay, I will explain in detail how we currently elect Presidents in the United States and assess whether or not this process is faithful to our democratic ideals.
During the 2016 election, the GOP swept positions across the nation, controlling the Legislative, Executive, and soon the Judicial branch of government. Members of the Legislative and Judicial branch are elected by their state by forms of a direct democratic vote by the state’s citizens. When electing the President, it
When it comes to listening to the people’s voices the Electoral College comes short. The Electoral College damages our voices. The Electoral