Due to the past election there has been several protests and opposing opinions thrown from both the Democratic and Republican parties. One particular article, “Why We Should Abolish the Electoral College”, suggests the idea that our society should abolish the electoral college, due to it’s “unequal distributed [voting power] across our nation”, and switch to the popular vote, when voting during a presidential election. At first this idea may seem sensible to those who do not understand how the electoral college works, the demand is in fact, senseless and will only lead to unproportioned voting amongst all states. However, it is easy to understand why this article is depicting that the electoral college needs adjustments, and to view the main
I think we should keep the Electoral College. Electoral College is defined in our textbook as; “An unofficial term that refers to the electors who cast the states’ electoral votes” (Patterson, T.E., 2013). Electoral voting is tied in with the states popular voting. Choosing electoral college adds to the cohesiveness of the nation by obliging an appropriation of popular support to be elected President, improves the status of minority interests, contributes to the political dependability of the country by promising a two-party system, and keeps up an elected arrangement of government and representation (Kimberling, W.C., 2008). I think that the Electoral College system is a big part of the cohesiveness of our country and it requires the distribution
The electoral college is a process the founding fathers established in the constitution with the intent to create a safeguard between the population and the selection of a president, and to give extra power to smaller states. However, based on the information presented in the articles the electoral college should be abolished as it violates our right of political equality, and fails to represent a third, independent, party in any election. Although there are many reasons to abolish the electoral college, the principal reason to take action would be the result of an obvious violation of our right to be politically equal. As shown in the chart provided (Doc D) 12 of the lowest populated states and the District of Columbia have almost the
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).
Do the American citizens actually have a voice to choose the next president or is it illusion of freedom? Are the president ready been selected and, consequently, the government convinced the citizens that their vote counts and that they still have some influence over the political process? Is the election fair for everyone or is it nothing but a Hollywood production? Since the beginning of the American political history, our founding fathers established a system in the constitution called the electoral college that choose the next president instead of the citizens because they believe that the citizens were not educated enough to know what is best for the United States. Throughout history, the electoral college created an argument on whether
The Electoral College has caused numerous problems in the past and have consequently changed the outcomes of numerous elections including the elections of 1800 (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Aaron Burr), 1824 (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden), 1888, (Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison), and 2000 (George W. Bush and Al Gore). throughout these elections the same catastrophe has occurred; The winner of the popular vote did not receive the presidency due to the Electoral College votes. In addition to the problems, there have been multiple close calls, for the example the elections of 1968 and 1976. While many analysts of American politics have come to
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,
Most countries in the world that practice democracy use a multi-party system. The United States does practice democracy, but only uses two parties when going through elections. The parties are the democrats and the republicans. One person from each party is chosen to represent their party. The presidential election is when those two representatives from each party go head to head to try to win the vote of as many states they can.
The Electoral College is a system stated in the Clause 2 of Section 1 in the Article II of the United States Constitution to elect the President of the United States. According to the Constitution, each state needs to appoint electors, who in turn vote to select the President. The number of electors from each state should be the same as the number of Senators and Representatives that the state entitled in the Congress. Citizens from each state choose the electors through elections. The electors then cast the citizens’ votes for the candidate they prefer.
All through the history of the United States of America, many people have discussed the abolishment of the Electoral College. For many reasons, some believe it is what makes our country have the type of government we have, some believe that it's what limits the power of the government, and many people such as Mitch McConnell believes it is what gives us our freedom and prosperity. While these are valid arguments there is a multitude of reasons to why the electoral college should be abolished. Such as there is only a need for twelve states in order to become the president, popular vote of the people for president can still lose, and the Swing states are given too much power and attention compared to that of the other states. This is why I believe in the abolishment of the Electoral College.
The first article's main point is that the United States of America should not get rid of the electoral college, but do away with the popular vote instead. The popular vote does not pick the president, it merely choosing which party of electors will be able to cast their votes towards their candidate. The article also said that instead of the electors for each state be the state's senators and representatives, they should be people of that state, decided by a lottery held before the election day. The second article said that if the country gets rid of the electoral college, then it would be as though the country is handing the election to the states that have the highest populations (i.e. California and Texas).
Despite the waning support for amending the constitution to alter the way American’s cast their ballots, throughout each election cycle media outlets discuss the fear surrounding the minority candidate, in terms of the popular vote, becoming the President. In an interesting article published by Forbes magazine just before the 2012 elections Taylor Broderick discusses the fifteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-sixth amendments and explains how these create a precedent for altering the U.S. voting system through amending the Constitution (Brodarick, 2012). He also argues that the Electoral College incites voter apathy in states which are not saturated with campaign efforts. In other words, people are more likely to participate in an election if they live in swing-states where candidates are actively campaigning. For these reasons, along with American’s historical opposition, Broderick believes politicians should gain public support for Congressional action, as Bayh did in the late 1960s, to throw out the current voting procedure.
A country in which someone is democratically voted Comander in Chief.. Not because the voters of the country picked them, but because of an old, unfair method that brought the person into power. The electoral college is a method in which representatives from states vote on a presidential candidate, not the state as a whole. This method has failed multiple times, as can be seen when the electoral college votes are compared to the popular vote. Instead of using the electoral college to pick the president, the United States should instead move to using the popular vote to pick the president. Using the popular vote would insure that who is picked for president is who the people wanted.
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.
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
Electoral college has been with us since the birth of the constitution, and to this day we are still using this type of system to this day. The Electoral College is a system that the United States uses to elect our upcoming presidents and vice presidents. Each state has electors equal to their senate member and house of representatives, however who ever gets the highest popular vote in the state gets the electoral vote. The issue is the Electoral College do not give votes to the people, but to the states. Which has some unfair consequences.