When Should The Electoral College Be Abolished Dbq

In the span of 20 years, 42 states elected by the people, and 27 states elected by the legislature. (Document 1). The election of Jackson was considered a “revolution,” because of its peaceful transfer of power. This revolution was different from any other, because it was achieved by ballots rather than bullets. Jacksonians cried, “Shall the people rule?” and the answer was, “The people shall rule!” Andrew Jackson was so notable that people have come 500 miles to see him and think that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger. It is said Jackson’s victory accelerated the transfer of national power from the country-house to the farmhouse, from the East to the West, and from the snobs to the mobs. If Jackson was a hero of the gentleman farmer, he was surely a hero of the dirt farmer. Jackson was democratic because he granted all men equal rights, and believed that the common man is just as good as the wealthy. This is how he got all his support, most of which came from the common man. We must also consider that he was a common man who became successful as president. He disagreed with the wealthy, who tried to empower the common man/farmers, and was a large supporter of wester farmers, low tariffs, and pet banks, rather than a national bank. (Document 2).

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.

What would you do if you didn't have a say in who runs America and how it is ran. What if you were promised freedom, and told that you had a government ran by the people but you didn’t get any input in the decisions? The direct popular vote doesn’t give the smaller parties a chance, but the electoral college does. Some people believe that the electoral college should be abolished; however, it gives people in rural communities a stronger voice, it allows the President a mandate to meet people’s needs in every state, and it reflects the political opinions of more Americans. Therefore, America should keep the electoral college.

One reason why Jackson was not democratic is his use of the spoils system. “King Andrew the first...born to command” (cartoon of Jackson that appeared in the presidential election of 1832). This cartoon shows how he felt like he could do whatever he wanted to further himself. “no one man has any more...right to (government jobs) than another” (Andrew Jackson’s letter to Congress). The spoils system gave government jobs to supporters of the political leader, often leading to fraud and inefficiency. Using power to reward people who are your supporters, rather than due to skill and experience, is wrong. It is also excluding certain people from having a say in the government, and getting what should be theirs, which is not democratic.

Your vote should mainly matter! Yes, the electoral college should be abolished. The delegates did not believe the president should be chosen by a direct population vote (of the people). They didn’t trust voters would have enough information to make a good choice. The Electoral College is where the president and vice president are chosen indirectly. This system is where all states and the District of Columbia get one electoral vote for each of their US senators and representatives. Also, each state has a slate of electors for each presidential candidate. Another way this system works is by winner-take all method. The winner-take all method is where whichever candidate wins the most votes in the state, wins the state electoral votes. Lastly a candidate must receive a majority (one more than a half) of the electoral votes to be declared president. That is how everything goes in the electoral college. The electoral college should be abolished because 12 states and D.C. total have double the amount of electoral votes but less people than Illinois. Also, the winner of the 1876 presidential election isn’t what people wanted, it was based on the number of electoral votes. Another reason the electoral college should be abolished is that the states with the same representatives dont have the same number of voters. All these issues that continue to happen, need to be resolved by getting rid of this system.

There are several people within the states that have the power to chose the President. There is a system to help it is called Electoral College. People would vote as normal and then all the votes for the state would determine the states candidate. This can help or hurt the the people for the opposing candidate. There need to be changes to the Electoral College and how many electoral votes are determined.

Jacksonian Democrats believed that any American was capable of holding government office. Jackson also said that if a man were to hold office for a lengthy period of time, he would be capable of "tolerating conduct from which an unpracticed man would revolt".

Jackson also gave government jobs to regular people. This was called the spoils system. He appointed people to federal jobs depending on whether they had campaigned for the Democratic Party. Anyone currently in office who was not a democratic was replaced with a democrat. This was called the spoils system because it promoted a corrupt government. He also believed in rotation in office. He wanted to make it possible for more democrats to have government jobs, so he limited a person's time in office to one term. The spoils system showed how one man was no better than another and helped build a strong two-party system.

To begin, Andrew Jackson was determined to get the people more representation in all branches of government. This was most likely because of the corrupt bargain that had so angered him due to the lack of democracy in the presidential election.

Another principle of the Jacksonian Democracy was the rotation system. Jackson limited a person's stay in office to just one term, and then appoint another in his place. Jacksonian Democrats believed that any American was capable of holding government office. Jackson also said that if a man were to hold office for a lengthy period of time, he would be capable of "tolerating conduct from which an unpracticed man would revolt".

I believe that the United States should abolish the Electoral College. One reason the Electoral College should be abolished is it makes it look like candidates win by a lot more than they actually do, because of the electoral votes. Document B proves that the Electoral College should be abolished because it provides two different elections pie charts, comparing the popular vote and the electoral vote. In the first elections pie chart, the election is between Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and John B. Anderson. For the popular votes Ronald Reagan gets 50.7 % of the votes, Jimmy Carter gets 41% of the votes, and John B. Anderson gets 6.6% of the votes. It is easily seen that Ronald Reagan had won the popular vote but by very little in comparison to Jimmy Carter. Then in the pie chart for the electoral vote, Ronald Reagan had 91% of the votes, Jimmy Carter had 9% of the votes, and John B. Anderson had 0% of the

The Founders built certain protections for individual rights into this country's founding documents. The United States Constitution was one such document. In particular, such protections guard Americans who hold minority viewpoints from those who side with the majority. For example, the First Amendment protects the right of free speech to ensure that people who hold unpopular views have just as much freedom to express those views as do people who tend to agree with the majority. The United States Constitution, therefore, was intended to protect the individual rights of Americans from a tyrannical government and majority. However, today, the Electoral College does not represent the vibrant democracy into which the United States has grown.

Although the “Age of Jackson” wasn’t a time era, which brought forth a great political, social, or economic freedom and equality to the U.S., it did in fact put our country through a metamorphosis in our political lives of the nation. The start of a new presidency (Jackson’s presidency) was accompanied by huge numbers of Hickoryites (Jacksonian supporters) and official hopefuls. Many of these hopefuls were granted their desire of holding office, which is one of the changes brought into Washington by Andrew Jackson.

A debate has been brewing in recent years concerning the way we elect our president. The first system is the Electoral College, which is complicated. Americans are not knowledgeable about it and worry that one candidate can win the popular vote and not the Electoral College. The opponents of the Electoral College propose a new plan called the National Popular Vote (NPV). The pro-Electoral College party contemplates the bill’s risks and costs are not worth the possibility of gains for certain states. The NPV believes that the US should adopt the National Popular Vote. NPV achieves well in making a clear and concise argument on why the Electoral College should be replaced. The first item that NPV discusses is the shortcomings of the current system. A smart move to describe everything that is wrong with the Electoral College and then immediately follow up with their idea. NPV displays how that the winner-take-all system is the root of the problem. The system allows for candidates to ignore states and candidates to win without popular vote nationwide. The argument is unblemished in the essay, but in the next essay that we read the author says NPV is promoting winner-take-all. Which is creating a problem on both sides of the argument and discredits, causing a weakness. NPV states, “presidential candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, or campaign in states that they cannot possibly win or lose” (Rourke, 145. Their argument is also supported by bringing up

The electoral college system is unnecessary at this point in time. When the electoral college system was thought up in the 1700s by the framers of the constitution, they believed that electors to represent the peoples’ vote would be more efficient since it was extremely difficult to get information to and from places quickly, meaning that citizens would be late on news. To to combat that, the framers created the electoral college system, a system where electors elected by a political party would represent the peoples’ vote, gather in Washington, and vote on their behalf. Because of the lack of technology, this method wasn’t a bad way to vote for presidents efficiently. But technology improved, negating the problem of Americans not knowing the news in Washington and concerning their candidates. Today, Americans have access to current and reliable news regarding their candidates and are generally up-to-date with politics. So with the technological advances present today, why do we still employ an electoral college to vote for our next president? There isn’t a pressing reason to keep it.