The Electoral College is a longstanding organization in place in the United States of America that was originally established by the Founding Fathers in create equality in presidential elections has become a topic of harsh criticism and controversy over the years.
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
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 exists, according to the Federalist Papers, in order to account for the opportunity of the tyranny of the majority or factions. It gives us the responsibility of choosing the President and members that are the best for us that prevents from bias opinions on who is chosen. The reason that the Constitution calls for this extra layer, rather than just providing for the direct election of the president, is that it will harm us a whole. James Madison worried about what he called "factions.” Until today, we are afraid of what Madison called, "the tyranny of the majority" – was that a faction could overgrow 50% of our population, at which point could sacrifice the rights of other citizens. As Alexander Hamilton writes in “The Federalist Papers,” "that the office of President will never fall to the lot to not just any man who doesn’t offer these qualifications. He further on argues that the point of the Electoral College is to preserve "the sense of the people," while at the same time ensuring that a
This shows that there was a balance that had to be found. Some of the topics they debated on where topics such as the president 's salary and how to prevent against sectional favoritism. The largest topic, however, was on how the president should be elected. One of the first struggles the men encountered was on who should elect the president. There were two sides, the supporters of the legislative branch electing the president and the supporters of popular vote.
Contrary to popular belief, when it comes to voting for president, the United States runs on an indirect democracy. This means that we do not directly choose our president; the electoral college is rather an example of federalism, both the Feds and the States are involved in the process. It is a collection of 538 votes that determine who the President will be: 100 senators, 2 per state, and 438 representatives, distributed by the population. These 538 votes in the Electoral College are divided among the states. Each state, no matter how populous or not, starts off with three votes. The remaining votes depend on the population of the state. The more people a state has, the more votes it gets. In early November, when citizens go to the polls,
The year of 1876 was and will probably be forever known as the most disputed election in the American history of elections. There was a lot of violence, discrimination and unjust results during the election of 1876-1877. The electoral commission was developed due to circumstances the election caused. Samuel J. Tilden had outpolled Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote, but due to the twenty uncounted electoral votes, there was a compromise and Hayes was elected President. The results of the election could and would have been different if the popular votes were considered in the decision of the presidency in the year of 1876.
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. Each elector must cast one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. In order to win the electoral college, and be nominated as President of the United States, the candidate must gain 270 of the 538 electoral votes. In an instance where no candidate receives the 270 votes needed, the House of Representatives
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.
At first glance this doesn’t seem like a bad thing, everyone gets an equal say, right? Wrong! This means that Wyoming which has a population of about 500,000 voters will have an the exact same say in presidency as California which has a population of 35 million voters. Essentially, highly populated states will find that their individual votes count proportionality less.
As one of the most hotly debated areas of the US government, the Electoral College deserves to be given a more in-depth look. It was originally founded as a way to prevent a lack of informed voters from electing an unqualified president. Now, it still serves its original purpose, but has become far less necessary in an age of easily accessible information. Despite having some positive points, the Electoral College is too overburdened by issues like unfair vote distribution and a high failure rate to be an effective system.
The Electoral Process is a problem in the government due to creating possibilities for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote (it has happened at least four times out of the fifty-six presidential elections). Also the electoral college warps the presidential campaign by bringing about the candidates to grant extra weight to the narrow needs of the swing states. The electoral college system also deforms the one-person, one-vote principle of the democracy since electoral votes are not distributed according to population. The electoral college creates the probability of a 269-269 tie vote. The electoral college doesn’t exactly stick to the Constitution cause the Constitution says that an elector cannot vote for a vice presidential
In my own words some of the pros and cons of the Electoral College are as followed and explained. My pros are that it maintains the federalist system, and allows for minority interests to be represented. It helps maintain the federalist system by keeping all of the branches of government equal. It helps allow for minority interests to be represented by helping the interest and have the ability to be represented and backed up by bigger parties to help get votes. My cons of the Electoral College are that is does not reflect the popular vote, and lowers voter turnout. The way is doesn’t reflect popular vote is because people think that their vote doesn’t matter to the voting of the president. The way it lowers the turnout is because it makes
Hence, the presidential campaign and election is shaped by the Electoral College, not the popular vote. Second, the presidential election should be the vote of the people, not the Electoral College. When our founding fathers wrote the constitution during the summer of 1787, the first 3 words they wrote were “we the people.” They believed that power should solely come from the people and that we should be able to exercise it effectively. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that the people of the United States don’t have much of a say in determining who they want as president, since the Electoral College is the primary institution that selects the president and vice president.