Rio Kuchlyan
Mr. Puma
AP Language and Composition
2 March 2023
In Support of the Electoral College
Voting is one of the most fundamental ways to participate in a democracy, and every citizen in a democracy deserves to have their voice heard. However, in a vast nation such as the United States, how is this achieved? Consider an ordinary citizen, perhaps a farmer living in rural Kansas. They must constantly consider the various things they have to manage, whether it be their crop production or any threats they face. The only way for them to get any assistance from the government is by voting; however, is it likely that the government will hear such farmers’ voices? After all, millions of people living in urban areas such as New York City will
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This is certainly a valid argument that has merit. Harvard University political scientist Gautam Mukuna states, "[t]he fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have [nearly four] times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy" (qtd. in Liasson). This aspect of the electoral college is illogical as in a democracy, such as the United States, every citizen should get an equal say in determining presidential elections. By allowing the Electoral College to exist, we are going against the basic principles of our democracy. One adverse effect due to this system is that there have been cases where a winner of a presidential election did not receive the majority of votes: “[t]he Electoral College [often] produces results counter to the majority: The winner takes all within most states. You get all of Michigan’s electoral votes whether you win by one vote or a million votes” (Cohn). The winner-takes-all system of the Electoral College essentially misrepresents the votes of an entire state, explaining why there is opposition to this voting system. A direct effect of this is evident when looking at larger states such as California. Say 51% of California’s voters voted for the Democratic Party, and 49% voted for the Republican …show more content…
The popular vote would have several disadvantages, as seen by studying how previous elections would have played out through the popular vote system. For example, looking at the Nixon vs. Kennedy presidential election of 1960, one can quickly determine that John F. Kennedy had defeated Richard Nixon through the Electoral College. However, when trying to count the popular vote, an issue appears due to an error in Alabama. Due to some issues, it was impossible to objectively determine who had won the majority of votes in Alabama. Consequently, there was a discrepancy between who had won the national popular vote, thus having no way to determine who won the presidential election through the popular vote (Craig). The popular vote relies on one dangerous assumption that a large nation like the United States can perfectly count all their votes. In a perfect world, the popular vote would certainly be a viable option. Realistically, however, it is simply too idealistic. On top of the popular vote system, there are many issues with ranked-choice voting. Although ranked-choice voting theoretically ensures that the candidate with the majority’s support is chosen, this does not always occur. These issues were present in the 2010 election in Australia that used ranked-choice voting: “[t]he liberal Labor Party won the Australian House
Walter E. Williams discuss how Hillary Clinton blamed the electoral college for her losing the presidential election. Williams stated that many individuals believed that the electoral college is dangerous when it comes to American politics. Individuals also claims that there are three electoral votes, or one electoral vote per 200,000 people in the state of Wyoming which was another factor that weight in the presidential election. In California, one electoral vote equals 715,000 people. Williams also stated that there a lot of individual who complain about using the electoral college since they believe that it’s undemocratic.
The United States government is one of the most admired and complex in the world, On the contrary one of the fundamental components that has an extensive impression on the American People and the Election is the Electoral College. Our founding fathers created The Electoral College over two hundred years ago, and it is still in effect today. They feared that having just the Popular Vote would give too much power to one person. In this paper, we will be discussing what the Electoral College is, the benefits and disadvantages of the Electoral College as well as if the Electoral College should be abolished or reconstructed.
Also, a lot of people don’t completely understand the Electoral College process. During the election, you will see sometimes that the popular vote leans in the opposite direction of the Electoral College votes. That can be very
This paper explores and discusses how the president of the United States is elected, but mainly analyzes the Electoral College and demonstrates possible positive and negative aspects of the voting system here in our country. The Electoral College is a difficult and intricate voting system that is hard to fully analyze in a pro-and-con fashion. Unless it is understood in its entirety and the past conflicts that brought about its existence to provide a viable method for electing the leader of the fledgling nation. The Electoral College was created during the original time of the 13 new states that composed the young United States of America. The nation was barely getting on its feet and presented various concepts and propositions for presidential elections prior to reaching the system we know today (Webster, 2016).
If the United States was to alter the system from an electoral college voting system to going straight to the popular votes, each vote in all different state would be gathered and combined together. Once all of the ballots are counted, the candidate with the majority votes becomes president and vice
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
This controversy is centered around the idea that the electoral college was used to take power away from larger states. Popular vote is, by no means, the better system since it has flaws of its own like giving large states more power. Due to certain disqualifying
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
In november of 2016, many of us went to our designated voting polls to cast a vote for our next President of the United States. Our government creates this allured idea that our votes matter, however this isn’t the case. The Electoral College is the process which is responsible for electing the President of the United States. In 48 states, after all the votes are accounted for, the political party whose candidate received a majority in a particular state is given all of the votes for that state. For example, if the majority votes are republican in Virginia, then all 13 of Virginia’s votes go towards the republican candidate, even if 49% of the votes are democratic.
On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a leap year, five hundred and thirty eight electors travel to their state capitol buildings to decide who is the next president of the United States of America. They take an oath, and cast the official ballots for the presidential election. The problem is that this system is not fair. So, which way of electoral college reform is the best? In this essay, some options for electoral college reform are introduced, and the best one is chosen.
However, Kimberling points out in his article “The Electoral College” that if one is elected with a substantial lead in popular vote, they are insured to the have more electoral votes. If one has barely a lead in popular vote count, both candidates would have the support to effectively lead the nation.(Kimberling) Counting and recounting all of the votes would be an unnecessary waste of time when two nominees have nearly the same backing from the people. The article also predicts that “if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only consideration, should we not then abolish the senate which represents states regardless of population?”(Kimberly) Therefore, the only way a person should be picked for the presidency is the Electoral College. Today, Americans throw away their constitution and founders who made the United States what it is today.
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
In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it
He recommends switching our current system to a direct election from the people, thus the popular vote wins. The issue of electoral reform is a continuous debate, and the author strongly encourages public discussion on the