Problem Of The Electoral College

I believe that we should not have an electoral college and depend on them. There are numerous reasons why I think this. It does not allow us to have a fair way to vote and it doesnt let everyone be heard. First, voters do not vote for the president they vote for a state of electors. If you have lived in Texas you would have to vote for a slate of 34 Democratic electors.

Abolition of the Electoral College There is a need to abolish the Electoral College because it is outdated and problematic. It has caused the candidates with less popular votes to win the presidency. Many people are against the Electoral College for this very reason. In the past the Electoral College has caused controversy because of its problems and there has been a need for reform. The Electoral College was created at the Constitutional Convention.

Campaign finance laws regarding federal election subsidies, money towards national convention efforts, presidential nominee subsidies, and soft money expenditures are all contributing to the failure of any third party takeoff. The FECA Act of 1974 that “provides subsidies for major party candidates for presidency” based upon the amount of money they raise indirectly impact the ability of minor parties to keep up with such long standing two party competition (Herrnson, 3). Campaign finance laws seem to have driven competition between only the two major parties in the United States as their provisions make it difficult for minor parties to receive enough funds with such a small following, even if that following has large sums of money. Both major and minor parties can qualify for government political funding through acts such as FECA; however, the major parties have great advantage of minor parties when it comes to receiving large sums of money due to their already established base. Major parties also have an advantage over third parties because they automatically receive national convention subsidies; over $13.1 million went to each major party in 2000 to help fund them (Herrnson, 4).

Is Gerrymandering a Controversial Topic? Gerrymandering is a process where the ruling political party uses the map of their state to draw lines that create voting districts in favor of their party. The result of this is that it doesn’t reflect the voters political views. For about 200 years the government has used gerrymandering during political elections and it continues to be used today (King, Elizabeth) . But recently gerrymandering has become more controversial because people feel that it has taken away their rights as a voter and it swings the votes to one side by a big percentage.

Maansi Dasari Mr. Morris AP English 3 12 January 2017 The Electoral College: The last remnant of slavery Amidst the chaos of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, emerges a cacophony of voices screaming for Electoral College reform. Many are angered by the results, others are confused: how can one candidate receive nearly three million more votes than the other and still lose the election? The Electoral College has been the United States’ method for electing a president since the Constitution was ratified, and this is far from the first time that it has been criticized. Proponents of the system accuse current skepticisms of being partisan, and the skeptics of being “sore losers”. However, defenders of the Electoral College, such as Guelzo and

If we look at most of our opinion when it comes to voting comes from the band wagon affect these days. Media often sways people’s perception on the candidate. I believe that voting doesn’t do us any good when it comes to electing the President of the United States of America or anyone elected to State Represenitive, Governor, or state local official. No matter who get the most popular vote or majority of the votes, the Electoral College always wins. To me this makes voting it senseless to me since the candidate that the American people have voted for will not get elected because of the Electoral College.

The incumbency advantage is the tendency for members of Congress to win re-election in overwhelming numbers. The congress in place now has one of the lowest approval rates recorded, but almost all running for re-election were reelected in both the House and Senate. What can be done to with these high incumbent rates? The people have continued to reelect congressmen that they do not approve of. How can those running against the already elected officials win against them?

However, it does need a major overhaul. As the population of the US changes, the Electoral College should be reviewed to ensure proper representation in each state. It has been proven in a few of the elections that the majority votes were not properly represented with the electoral votes. During President Obama election, he did not win the majority of popular votes in some of the states; however, he won all of the Electoral College for those states. This election is one of about four Presidential elections that have won with Electoral College but not with the majority of popular votes.

Abidjan Bright Badih Elarba Texas Politics 1133.010 Fall 2015 Voter ID law in Texas It was in 2011 that the Legislature passed Bill 14 that allowed Texas to have a strict voter ID law for the November election. Many people were opposed to this because it limited many eligible citizens from voting causing a lower voter turnout than what Texas has already had. This is a major problem in Texas because majority of our population consists of immigrants from Mexico and many of them are still fighting for citizenship. Because of this law it is in question, how much power does our state actually have in the regulation of elections? Limits on voter qualifications are stated in the US constitution and within federal laws as well.

One of the biggest worries when people talk about compulsory voting is the fear of uneducated votes randomly swinging polls all around in no orderly fashion. Compulsory voter supporters argue that the abstention option is all that is needed to solve this problem. However, research conducted by Trevor Burrus found that between twenty-nine and thirty-six percent of previous non-voters who chose to not abstain could not tell you who they voted for upon leaving the polling place. Compulsory voting creates a stigma to make people want to cast a vote and make their vote matter if they’re going to be forced to come out anyway, this causes people to not abstain and just pick any candidate or the one they have heard their name the most. Another commonly used tactic to cleanse the polls is to put a fictitious name on the ballot to grab at least a chunk of the uneducated or random votes.

The Electoral College is a system that was put in place in 1787 when the founding fathers were determining how to fairly elect a president in a country that had different sized states that separated themselves from a centralized national government in a time when national votes being collected from all of the people, given the rural areas and lack of transportation or communication, was not feasible, thus eliminating the idea of a simple national popular vote. Other ideas suggested included having Congress or state legislatures elect the president, but these too were discarded due to the risks of upsetting balance of the power, either between the executive and legislative branch, or between state and federal governments. In the end, the concept of the Electoral College was passed. With the Electoral College, each state has a specified number of voting districts, these divided and based upon the population of that state. During an election, the people vote for the candidate they choose, and the candidate who wins the popular vote wins the election - for that state.

If the people were to elect the president directly, certain situations/problems wouldn’t be as analyzed like the Electoral College analyzes it. (McGraw Hill pg.385) If we were to get rid of the electoral college the states with a higher population would dominate the elections, therefore, leaving the small rural states unnoticed or with no voice. That would be very unfair towards rural areas, the present system gives the state’s power more strength and secures our federal system’s strength. (McGraw Hill pg.385) In order to make our voice be heard toward the candidate of our choice we should participate in campaigns as well as voting. The majority of our population doesn’t take the time to get politically involved and vote, making their opinion towards our government overlooked.

The Electoral College is a crucial component of how the President of The United States is elected. The votes cast by the Electoral College can outweigh the popular vote of the American public, so it would be consequential for the American public to be aware of the Electoral College and have at least a basic understanding of how it works. This, however, is sadly not the case. Even some of today’s elected officials are not up to date on how the government works. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute ran a poll of twenty-five hundred randomly selected Americans, out of the members of that poll that were elected officials only fifty-three percent of them answered correctly when asked if they knew what the Electoral College’s function was.

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