The Electoral College is an antiquated process the founding fathers established in the Constitution as a compromise to elect a president not from a vote in Congress or popular vote of qualified citizens. But by both The Electoral College process 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. The College consists of 538 electors, which a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. States are entitled an allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators. 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 …show more content…
Supporters of the Electoral College system normally promote it on the philosophical view that it contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president(which does not make any sense), it enhances the status of minority interests(which is not true), contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two-party system, and, maintains a federal system of government and representation (Bates, 2004). Under the proposed new electoral system, each candidate’s election showing would be a weighted average of his or her popular vote in 51 states , each state’s weight would be comprised of its proportion of total electoral votes as tallied by present conventions. The final score for candidates would be expressed as a
These electors are here to represent the United States population of approximately 309,000,000 people. This would mean 1 electoral vote represents 574,000 people (Video 2). Every state must have at least 3 votes in the current system and the District of Columbia gets to vote even when it is not a state while territories like Puerto Rico do not get to vote even when people living there are US citizens. This
Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College The Electoral College system is an indirect system of voting. Under the Electoral College, American citizens are voting for an elector, who would then vote for the President. It is made up of 538 electors, who based on the public vote, cast their areas vote for president. Those citizens are not directly voting for the President. In order for a person to win presidency, they must obtain 270, or the majority, of the Electoral College votes.
The Electoral College has many good attributes some of those include giving equal representation to the small states and keeping the system simple. “The election of 2000 is one of the rare cases where the winner of the popular vote did not also win the electoral vote, but the electoral vote reflected the fact that Bush won in far more states (30) than did Gore, and thus highlighted the federal nature of the system.” The outcome of this election shows how the Electoral College more accurately represents the citizens votes than the popular vote. In this scenario without the electoral college the election would have been swayed in favor of the larger more populous states. “the Electoral Colleges strengthens the two-party system and discourages third-party challengers who could further fragment the existing political system.”
In the Electoral College, each state gets a number of electors based on its representation in Congress. The Electoral College is the best method for electing a president for the country right now. The first reason the Electoral College is best, is that it ensures that all parts of the country are involved in the
I must preface this discussion with the fact that I am anything but, pro Electoral College. Nonetheless, the Electoral College is a method of voting within our democracy, which each state is allocated a certain amount of “electors” who are sworn to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their respective state. However, there are two exceptions to this rule, the states of Nebraska and Maine, which bifurcate their respective electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote. The quantity of electoral votes in any given state is grounded in the state’s congressional representation. Respectively, each state is afforded two votes for every Senator with an added vote for every member of the House of Representatives, which is in-turn grounded in volume of the state population.
Though unlikely to be at the forefront of any 2016 presidential platforms, the Electoral College is a widely contested issue among partisans, many of who believe that a better method exists for selecting the President of the United States. This anti-Electoral College sentiment is also present among Americans nationwide, Republicans and Democrats alike. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 61% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats would vote to do away with the Electoral College. In today’s contentious political atmosphere, in which Republicans and Democrats are constantly at odds with one another, any level of agreement between the parties clearly indicates that a change needs to be made. Changes are already starting to occur at the state level,
The idea of the popular vote was not widely viewed as an alternative to the electoral college. Due to the fact that most of the country had not changed drastically, this is why I believe now we need to discuss a possible change to the process. (Kimberling, 1992, Pg.
The smallest number of electoral votes that a state can have is 3 (2 for senate and 1 for HOR), however, since all states must have at least 3 votes, this extracts some of the voting power from the larger states (Document A). Furthermore, this system allows for candidates to focus their efforts on certain parts of the country because in order to win, only 12 out of 50 states must vote
The Electoral College is the election of the president and vice president where for over a hundred years the electors were equired to be chosen by the voters with the exception of Members of Cogress. When each state votes, “the voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidates, they are actually voting for the slate of electors in their state pledged to those candidates” (Neale 2017, p.1) so the people have a voice, but their are knowledgeable electors who have the final say. It is also very possible with this set up that the winner of the electoral votes does not always get the popular vote (Posner, 2012). Madison believed that the Electoral College would “keep the states involved, but retain the role of the people” (Ornstein 2001,
The Electoral College: Indispensible or Unnecessary? The Electoral College plays a vital role in American politics — so why is it so misunderstood and so frequently criticized? The Electoral College is the method by which a president is elected: each state and the District of Columbia hold voting contests, then cast a set number of electoral votes for a candidate based on the results of the state contest. A candidate must gain 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
The Electoral College system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. Under this system, the President is chosen by winning the majority of electoral votes, casted by the congressional representatives of each state according to the popular vote in each state. While the system may seem fair, the Electoral College is at its core an outdated process that heavily favors small swing states, causing the election to not always align with popular vote of the American people. The necessity of the Electoral College for the means of electing a President is no longer relevant in the United States, as the motivations for establishing the system were specific to the time of early America.
Lola Cleverley American Government Mr. Baker 2 March 2023 The Electoral College vs. The District Method The Electoral College is the system by which the United States elects our president. The number of electors each state gets is based on its representation in Congress, 1 vote for every senator and representative. The electors vote for the candidate that got the most votes in the state, meaning winner takes all the votes.
The Electoral College is the process to which the United States elects the President, and the Vice President. The founders of the Constitution came up with this process. This was done to give additional power to the small states, and it was done to satisfy them. It works by the citizens of the United States electing representatives called electors. Each state is given the same amount of electors, as they are members of congress.
The whole concept of the Electoral College is actually quite confusing, but the main point of the electoral college is to be a group selected by the states to elect the president and the vice-president, in which each state's number of electors is equal to the number of its senators and representatives in Congress. This all works by those selected from each state are to vote for the electors when they cast off their votes on others behalves. The Issues that were hidden within the electoral college started in the year 1787, at the Congressional Convention. Where the US was still working out the bumps in the road on the balance of the small states and the large states, this sparked new ideas to alter the whole concept of electing a president and a vice-president. This was going to become the starting base of the Electoral
“Pros and cons of the Electoral College it said this about what supporters think about the electoral college “Naturally, supporters of keeping the current system have their own statements. They claim that the Electoral College forces candidates to focus on states rather than simply cities with the most population. They say the Electoral College forces candidates to build a nationwide coalition in order to win. There are also claims that, had the Electoral College been abolished, Bush still would have won the 2000 election. They reason that, knowing the election was to be focused on popular vote, Bush would have allocated his resources differently and still managed a victory.”