Imagine how the country would be different today if we had used a direct popular vote instead of the Electoral College. The voting system came into place when getting trying to receive all of the American citizens votes was a hard task to accomplish. Also at the time, quite a few citizens were illiterate and disbursed geographically. Now with the power of technology, it is easier process to get every single American vote. The Electoral College is an unfair voting system used in Presidential elections and should be replaced with a direct popular vote. How does the Electoral College work? Paragraph 1- Background and Founding Fathers The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College because they needed voting rules in order for the candidate …show more content…
Only one candidate will receive that state’s electoral votes, those who vote for the opposing side are ignored. Out of the 50 states, only two states use a different system than the winner-takes-all system. In Maine and Nebraska, the candidate with the most popular votes receives two votes, while the rest of the votes are based off of district winnings (“What is the…”). Each state gets the same amount of electoral votes no matter how many voters turnout for the ballots …show more content…
This shows that many voters feel that it is time for a change in the United State’s voting system. The Electoral College only reflects the candidate that wins the most votes per state (Kimberling). With a direct popular vote, it will reflect each voter’s opinion. The article, “Origins of the Electoral College, this states that, "the Electoral College was designed by men who did not want the election of the president to be left to the people…” (Holcombe). As American citizens, everyone deserves a say in who should be the President, not electors who are bound to vote for a specific
Short Essay: The Electoral College was constructed in the 1700s in which it was a process that ensured that election of the President of the United States was fair and not chaotic. It consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. Many people disagree with the system of the Electoral College being an impact when determining the President of the United States.
Under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College. Each candidate running for President in your state has his or her own
The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton’s 227, thus winning the presidential election. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer
Although the Electoral College may have been a necessary element of the government when it was originally created, the system has since become impractical for today’s society. The will of the people is now far better expressed through the resulting popular vote than the electorate of the Electoral College. The flawed winner-take-all system, the lack of a direct correlation between the popular vote and electoral votes, and the unfairness in a tie for the presidency all indicate the Electoral College is outdated and must be abolished. In the current electoral system, the slightest majority in a particular state means all of the votes in that state are given to the candidate that wins the majority.
Not only is the government transgressing the constitution, but obligating the assurance of Americans hope by promoting disbelief in the government. All votes need to count for the sake of our future. “Who are the electors? They can be anyone not holding public office. Who picks the electors in the first place?
Throughout the years, there have been many qualms regarding the electoral college. Does the Electoral College properly represent the will of the American people? Is the electoral college an outdated system? Recently, these questions resurfaced as the election of 2016 resulted in the projection of Donald Trump triumphing over Hilary Clinton, even though Clinton received more popular votes at the end of the election. I believe that the Electoral College should be removed and changed to a more balanced system which reflects the needs and wants of each individual residing in America rather than society that does not account for the greater population of America in an old-fashioned system where the framers of the Constitution did not trust the American people to elect a leader worthy of the title.
The Electoral College is a process that was established by the founding fathers of the United States to elect the President of the country. It was established as a compromise between the election of the President by popular vote and election of the President by vote in Congress. The Electoral College is composed of three parts: the selection of the Electors, the Elector meeting where they cast their votes, and the counting of the votes by Congress. In this paper, I will discuss the composition of and procedures within this Electoral College system in detail. The Electoral College is composed of a total of 538 Electors, of which 270 votes are needed as a majority to elect the President.
However, the Electoral college is, in fact, unnecessary for a multitude of reasons. The first of which is the change in population geography. In 1789, the entire United States only held about four million people (Kimberly). Compare that to the 326 million people in 2017, and the differences are staggering (“U.S. World and Population”). The Electoral College delegates a number of votes to the population of a state.
On November 6, 2012, Donald Tump tweeted from his personal twitter account that “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy”. Four years later, he went on to win the electoral vote for presidency. His opponent had nearly three million more popular votes. The electoral college is a population based system that has decided general elections ever since the Constitution was written, often falling with the popular vote. It is strange for the electoral not to vote the way of the people, especially since there is nothing thing in the Constitution that pledges electoral votes to a candidate.
The 2016 presidential election well demonstrated the possibility that the electoral college could generate a different outcome with the one of popular votes. It also brought back the controversy about whether or not we should continue to use this method to elect our president. The Electoral College system, as an indirect election measure, has various drawbacks and should be abolished and changed to a more widely-accepted method to encourage people to cast their votes that truly represent their interests, given the fact that we have reached a point that the technology is mature enough to help us to do
In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it
(Black, 2012) So, while it is clear that the Electoral College was set up to ensure all states have a voice, it now seems to have the ability to take away the voice of the people. It is necessary to look at our voting process and make the necessary changes needed to ensure the process of electing our President represents the voice of the people. By switching to a majority vote we ensure that the voice of all people are not only heard, but are represented equally, which is how it should be under the one-person, one-vote
The creation of the Electoral College was the result of one of the many compromises of our Founding Fathers. The intentions of such a system were developed to create fairness for smaller states and to prevent an unsuitable candidate from acquiring the office. Although it has been rare, the possibility that the Electoral College and not the popular vote would decide a presidential election was intended in its creation. The pros and cons of such a system have changed over time and are heavily debated in our current circumstances. Due to advancements in technology not envisioned by the founders, alternatives have been suggested to resolve the conflicts of what some feel is an outdated system.
Several years after the United States came to be, the Constitutional Convention met to determine how the new nation should govern itself. The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. The delegates believed that the president’s power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nation’s principle of representative democracy, while others
No longer should we stand for this we have to insure that votes are actually making a difference in our country. What is the point not voting if we are just ignored and tossed aside? The Electoral College is the sole reason why some people just do not care about voting, because they feel like they don't make a difference in the matter, and that is correct in some degree because the Electoral College makes it that