Why Do We Vote For People And Not Policies?

Many people have questioned why the founding fathers implemented the use of the electoral college process and a good assumption would be that the they were quite intentional in rejecting a direct election process mindset and we also have to take into account that as they were crafting our entire constitution. They established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. They were not trying to create a pure democracy, but had the difficult issue of having to incorporate

Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.

Despite the Electoral College system being founded by the founding fathers in America and being there as long as the Constitution exists, many people still do not have sufficient knowledge on how it works. The Electoral College does not provide honest presidential elections rather it has the potential to undo the will of people at any point from the selection of electors to the vote tallying in Congress (Shaw, 3). Electoral College in the United States has played a major role in depressing the voter's turnout. Every State is given an equal number of electoral votes despite the population and in turn, the system has put in place no measure to encourage the voters to take part in the elections. Besides, the system distorts

The purpose of elections is to allow the people to voice their opinions on who they wish should hold public office in the government. Whichever candidate has the most votes, win the election.

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.

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 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.

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

Citizens might vote for the president however they don’t truly get to choose who wins. The system thinks that people cannot choose the president so they need a group of elite specialist to choose one for them. This clearly proves that we don’t even have to opportunity to be in the process in choosing our own president. Before hearing about this during the discussions in class, I did not know about how the Electoral College worked and it was very disappointing to see how it actually worked. It’s not true democracy without letting your citizens know how the system actually works and it’s astonishing to see the reality of it. For example, Plato’s tale on “The Allegory of the Cave”, the shadow of the cave symbolizes how people can have a sense of what is happening but they can’t truly see what is happening behind the doors. We think that we are looking at reality and when we finally see what is happening, it will

Elbridge Gerry, a Father of the Constitution, put it this way, “A popular election in this case is radically vicious. The ignorance of the people would put it in the power of some one set of men dispersed through the Union, and acting in concert, to delude them into any appointment.” This means that the People would elect a man who promised great things, but in reality was playing on their wants just to win the election. They would increasingly become more tyrannical over time and each election till one day the United States might have another King George III to deal with. So, to keep from letting this happen the Founding Fathers found a better way to elect the President, the Electoral College. They saw the electoral college as a way of preserving the freedom of the United States and keep the people content and well represented (Longley). The young, naïve new voters do not look below the surface to see what the candidate is selling. They see a big picture and vote based on that, but what they do not realize is that the candidates want that and use that. Bernie Sanders was saying how if he won the election he would work towards getting free college. The only problem with free college is that nothing is actually free. Someone has to pay for the bills, books,

However, it has withstood over 200 years with minimal issues. The Electoral College produces a president who appeals across regions of the nation while also remembering the importance of listening to the voices of minorities and individual states. The Electoral College was created to protect the liberties laid out in the Constitution and secure our nation’s form of government—a democratic republic (i.e. representative democracy). Although several alterations have been proposed and some opponents wish to abolish it, the Electoral College still stands, able to fulfill its imperative task of selecting the nation’s

The Constitution of the United States of America created a system called the Electoral College where it outlines the rules in which we elect the President of the United States of America. As stated in Article 2, Section 1 of the U. S. Constitution created the Electoral College. Each state receives as many electoral votes as it has senators and representatives. Therefore, each state, including the District of Columbia, will have at least three electors. This is the vision of the Constitution. Now the problem arises when all the Electoral votes from one state are given to the popular winner for that state. This causes a with people’s right to chose their leader as votes of the people that voted for the losing candidate are tossed in the trash. All this while giving the state the ultimate power to elect the president.

Two hundred and twenty-nine years ago, our founding fathers had debated on which route to take when electing our President. In 1787, the “Committee of Eleven” had come to a compromise, and created the Electoral College, which is a group of individuals elected by the people to cast votes for the presidency. The Electoral College is described as “a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote” (Price). The reason behind the Electoral College was to preserve “the sense of the people,” while ensuring that our president is chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under

Do you have a favorite president? Have you ever voted for president? The United States election process was created in 1787 and went into action in 1789 by the founding fathers (“Presidential Elections”). In the first election, two candidates that ran for office included George Washington and John Adams. Through the original election process, George Washington ended up taking office (“Electoral College”). The election process has changed many times since 1789 to become the current election process. Our election process is fair because the candidates and voters have beneficial requirements, the candidates give a valid preview of their government ideas, and the candidate votes are determined by both the public and experienced politicians.