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What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The Electoral College Many people do not realize that when they are voting for their presidential choice, they are really just voting for the Electoral College vote. The person who is nominated to hold the position for the Electoral College then votes for the presidential candidate. The Electoral College was put into place by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens (Archives). The Electoral College is 538 electors and the President needs at least 270 electoral votes to win the election. The number of electors equals the House of Representative and two members of Congress. Many states have the “winner-takes-all” policy, …show more content…

The biggest con to the Electoral College is that the president could win by popular vote but actually loses the race because of the Electoral College vote. This happened recently in the 2000 Presidential race with George W. Bush and Al Gore (Gore). Al Gore actually won the popular vote but because the Presidential election is determined by the Electoral College, George W. Bush became our 43rd President. Another con is the Electoral College distorts the presidential campaign by causing the candidates to focus on states with large Electoral College votes (Black). This means that if a state has little Electoral College voters, the candidates do not spend as much time campaigning in that state because they are out to get the larger states. Another con is that a President and Vice President must be voted together. The Electoral College states that an elector cannot vote for separate the candidates (Black). This means that who ever is running for President and Vice President must be voted together as a team. When you are picking the President, you are automatically picking the Vice President that is with them. The last con is that when voting for the President, you are not actually voting for the President. You are voting for the Electoral College vote and then they are voting for the …show more content…

There are many pros and cons to both sides of this argument. I feel that there is still a need for the Electoral College. It is not very often that a candidate loses by electoral vote. This system of voting allows each state to play the same part in the voting process. Without the Electoral College the biggest problem would be that smaller states would not stand a chance against the bigger states. This system may have some flaws but in the end it is the best way that we can continue to have a two-party system and run our government the way it has continued to work for so

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