The way it’s set up makes the people think they’re choosing the president yet in reality it’s the slate of electors who are choosing who they want in office. They basically give the people that look up to the higher ups false hope by leading them on. “For example Hayes lost with popularity, yet won the election (popular vote-4, 036,572 and electoral vote- 185). How?
Hayes who was in the Republican party and Samuel J. Tilden who, opposite of Hayes, was in the Democratic party. The Electoral College was first developed with the constitution to serve as a compromise, because people thought Congress should elect the president while others thought the popular vote should have the decision. Each state has a minimum of three electors which is constructed of two senators and a representative. The more representatives a state has, the more electors granted. Although the popular votes do not determine the elector votes, it almost always happens where the electors vote for whom the popular votes resulted in.
The year a new president must be chosen is always a time of tension in the United States. Hopeful candidates run for president, and citizens start swearing their allegiance to a candidate and party. The GOP and DNC start grooming the candidates they wish to have as president while independent candidates are just trying to get their names in the news. One of the topics that is always criticized and defended around the time of the presidential elections is always the Electoral College. One side say it is undemocratic and unfair, and the other side says that it is a pillar of the United States government.
In 1787 there was a constitutional convention which composed a new structure for our American government. (Study.com 2003) During the convention the delegates weren’t able to decide whether the people or congress should elect the president, thus creating the Electoral College. (Study.com 2003) The Electoral College is an arrangement between the majority vote of Congress and qualified citizens for the election of the president.
Those states have high electoral votes because of their population and more people to vote equals more power in the Electoral College. This systems allows a group of districts to decide in a group effort to give their power of choice to the right leader for this
The existence of the Electoral College has remained a source of debate for the population of the United States for centuries. Despite the evident discontent surrounding it, the United States is largely unaware of the disconnect between citizens’ voices and the Presidency. It can be said that popular sovereignty, no matter how pleasant a concept, has become little more than an illusion the people cling to. In short, the Electoral College is an institution that must be abolished, because it violates political equality, is unfair to third party candidates, and is not an accurate representation of the people’s votes.
The electoral college keeps the federal system of government. Our founding fathers spent hours debating and creating our current system of government and election systems. The federal system has lasted america hundreds of years without fail. Many say current government officials should not mess with a seemingly flawless system. The current election systems ensures the people have a say in who is elected president but do not hold all of the power.
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,
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
It has been a long election process. With no majority in the electoral college, the election has had to go to the House of Representatives. It is the first time since the passing of the twelfth amendment that a presidential election has received no majority. Why did the election go to the House, and how is it decided? U.S. Elections use a specific system to ensure voting is fair and accurate.
The people who live in Wyoming, Vermont, and Rhode Island all have a heavier hand in the election due to their low population, this is unfair because although the point of the Electoral College is to keep power out of any one person’s hands, it is not fairly dispersing power to the people within the different states. According to Chris Derosa, he too believes this, “The first problem with the Electoral College is that it gives more weight to voters in small states than those in more populous ones, says DeRosa,” (Nuemann). Yes, the point of the Electoral College is to keep the fate of the election out of any one man’s hands, and it still does that; this is exactly why citizens have voted for themselves for 200 years. The population might be smaller in these states but think about the uses of their land; Wyoming’s unpopulated land is used for mineral refining and national forests and parks. Vermont’s land is used for forestry that allows people to build homes across the country, North Dakota’s unpopulated land is mainly used for agriculture.
A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators.” (National Archives) Despite the criticisms that the system has received, it is still important that we maintain the Electoral College system for multiple reasons.
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
First, with the specifications of the electoral college there only needs to be 270 electoral votes to a person for them to win. With this rule only 12 states need to be won CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, OH, MI, GA, NC, and NJ(DOC A) and this is only a part of the overall population of America. While
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.