Jackson Fullmer
Mr. Baker
Government
March 2nd, 2023 The Electoral College is a system that has been around for a very long time. It is used to determine which President and Vice President candidates are going to be elected. While some argue that it should be replaced with an alternative method, there are several reasons why the Electoral College is the best option for America. The Electoral College being the way that it is makes sure that each state has a say in the election. Each state has a certain amount of electors based off its states population. This means that the smaller states aren’t completely overshadowed by the bigger states, because the smaller states have a way greater say in the election under this plan than they would
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Being under a popular vote system candidates would have much less reason to address the issues in each state. But being under an Electoral College system makes our candidates pay attention to each specific concern that voters are having in their specific state. I’m glad that this is a thing because it makes sure that we are electing someone to represent our entire country rather than somebody that only works to please the larger areas. The Electoral College also inspires a 2 major party system. The Electoral College almost always is in favor of the Republicans and the Democrats. Because of this it makes third party candidates have a way harder time getting the electoral votes that they need from the Electoral College. This makes it so that we have political balance with these being our 2 main parties and makes sure that Presidential candidates have wide support all across our country. One argument that people make against the Electoral College is that the winner of the popular vote can still lose the presidency. Because in the United States the President and Vice President is elected by the Electoral College. This can cause people to be upset with the candidate that is elected because they feel they should not be elected if the population of the country wants the other person more. Some people find it to be undemocratic and feel that it completely defeats the purpose of one person, one
One pro is that it Requires a distribution of popular support to be elected president. Another pro is it enhances the political stability of the nation by promoting a two-party system. The last pro that I am going to say is, it maintains the federal system of government and representation. Some cons to the Electoral College is, there are possibilities of electing a minority president. A minority president is, a president who has been elected by the largest number of votes cast but not by a majority of the electorate.
Preventing this is achieved by giving each state electors equal to the number of House Representatives and Congresspeople. This creates a mathematical advantage to those smaller states, preventing their voice from being trampled by large states like California and Texas (uselectionatlas.org 2008). Another debatable benefit of the electoral college is how well it solidifies Americas two party system. While it allows fewer options for the presidency, it also makes America more efficient, as only two parties have to debate on legislation. The electoral college also forces these two parties to be more moderate, because they have to appeal to at least a plurality of America.
One reason that the framers of the constitution included the Electoral College is because they believed people will only vote for people in their own states and basically play favorites. However, in modern democracy it is evident that this system no longer benefits entirely the people of the states’. It must be modified because the restrictions that vary state to state through each election is now unnecessary in today’s society. In a presidential election an electoral vote should count the same as a popular vote no matter the circumstances. The states that remain mutual in a presidential candidacy election, where the populations are evenly divided causes an issue of winning the state
One of the most popular reasons why we should keep the electoral system is that it gives small states an equal opportunity. If the president was elected through popular vote the areas of America with more population would rule the White House. But in the electoral college the smaller states have a more equal vote. Small states can make a big difference when it comes to tight elections and because of that candidates cannot ignore the smaller states. But if we had the popular vote system the candidates would only travel to bigger states with a larger population.
With the winner-takes-all system the U.S. currently uses, minorities can change what candidate their state representatives vote for. This is because when a candidate gets the popular vote in a state, the electors of that state will typically vote for that candidate, giving all the states' votes to the individual. This also forces the candidates to broaden their focus to all people, instead of just the majority. Furthermore, the electoral college has only two major parties, which forces them to focus on a broader range of issues that appeal to more people.
Despite all the criticisms and calls for reform, the Electoral College remains the best system for electing the President. First off, the great Electoral College will ensure that candidates must campaign in a variety of all different states and in a variety of different ways, instead of focusing only on a few large states or bigger population centers.
Rush Limbaugh once said, “The primary purpose of the Electoral College is to maintain the power of the states and to support the idea that the election is decided by the states. It’s not decided by the general population, and it never was.” Rush Limbaugh is describing exactly why the Electoral College was created- so that power could be divided amongst the states without one person holding more power than another. Although some people think that a national popular vote would be a better way to have elections, it is actually the exact opposite. Getting rid of the Electoral College would mean that not only would the bigger, more populated, cities hold all of the power, you are just one vote that is going up against thousands of others.
All of these are good things, but they do not outweigh the system we currently have. As the great Burt Lance said, “If it aint broke, don’t fix it.” In conclusion, the Electoral College system is essential to ensure that all states have equal representation in the election process, provide a clear winner, make sure that the President and Vice President are elected by most of the country, and are elected by a diverse group of people. Despite the criticisms that the system has received, we should maintain the Electoral College system to ensure that our democracy is fair, representative, and
The electoral college also helps the small states have an opinion that actually is heard in the presidential election. In class, it was discussed that Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota together, though their combined population is less than that of Oklahoma, each of those states has three electoral votes, whereas Oklahoma just has seven votes. Going by electoral votes, a candidate would have a better chance at winning the election if they won over Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota versus Oklahoma. With the electoral college, a candidate could win over all thirty-nine small states and win the entire election. Though the candidate could be supported by less than a quarter of the population,
Then, they build campaign platforms with a national focus, which means that the winner will serve all of the country’s needs. If the election only depended on the popular vote, candidates could limit campaigning to heavily populated areas or specific regions. Tina Mullaly, a South Dakota Representative, stated, “the Electoral College protects small state and minority interests and that a national popular vote would be like two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.” (Tina Mullaly) Without the electoral college, some states like Iowa and Ohio with small farmers or factory workers they would be ignored for having favor of pandering to metropolitan areas with a higher population density.
This system makes a safeguard around our votes. “Using electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard the presidential election against uninformed or uneducated voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors who were most likely to possess the information necessary to make the best decision in a time when news was not widely disseminated.” (Electoral College). The Electoral College gives voters peace of mind because they know the electors are educated on what they want and will vote accordingly. Some may say the popular vote is better in this situation because it gives each vote an equal amount of power and it would eliminate the threat of a faithless elector.
Current day, it has little relevancy since it was originally included to address also issues that do not exist anymore, including not trusting the decision to be made by the American people. When originally founded, they wanted to ensure the President was decided by electors who had the knowledge to make what they felt was informed decisions. Now, many people feel as though too much power is given to the electoral votes, and that their vote does not mean as much as someone in a different state. As it stands, many feel that small states are largely misrepresented and given too much power since the votes are not divided equally among the population. In fact, if the Electoral College system was not in the Constitution, it would undoubtedly be removed due to it being unconstitutional, because using the electoral votes violates the principle of one-person, one-vote.
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. The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers of the United States at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in order ensure there was representation of the people while keeping the best interests of the nation in mind (“What is the Electoral College?”). At the time of the writing of the Constitution, there were two main ideas on how to elect a president. The first was that there should be a simple vote of all eligible people and who ever gets the most votes becomes
The Electoral College system assures balanced power between the states, puts the independent parties under control, grants balanced voting, and supports the major political parties. The Electoral College has proven itself to be very sufficient in determining the president and the vice president of the United States. Since this system has been successful since our Founding Fathers created it, there should be no reason as to why we should get rid of the Electoral
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.