Do the American citizens actually have a voice to choose the next president or is it illusion of freedom? Are the president ready been selected and, consequently, the government convinced the citizens that their vote counts and that they still have some influence over the political process? Is the election fair for everyone or is it nothing but a Hollywood production? Since the beginning of the American political history, our founding fathers established a system in the constitution called the electoral college that choose the next president instead of the citizens because they believe that the citizens were not educated enough to know what is best for the United States. Throughout history, the electoral college created an argument on whether …show more content…
According to the article “The Indefensible Election college”, it say if the electoral vote is a tie, the House of Representatives would choose the next president(Doc F). While the candidate who has the popular vote and the electoral vote, but does not win at end, makes the voters feel that the vote did not have effect in the election. Based on the document on the four presidential election, it show that the president can win without the vote from citizens or electoral college vote(Doc G). When a candidate win without the vote from the citizens and the electoral, the citizens get discourage and would not vote again.
The electoral college is unfair to the third party because they don’t get votes from the electoral college. Based on the presidential election from 1980 and 1992, it have show that the third party don’t get electoral vote(Doc B). The third party have a disadvantage which make it impossible for the third party to win the election because of the “winner take it all” system. According to George Will, he say that it discriminate smaller party and only help the main two parties(Doc E). The electoral college supports a two party system, discourages third party, and thereby restrict choices available to the
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?
On document C, the text says, “It is designed to promote good government and legislation that forwards the common good of a large and diverse nation” (Document C), “It has formed our political parties, moderated our more extreme elements and forged the presidential campaigns that have given direction to our ship of state” (Document C). This here explains that the Electoral College is designed to promote good government and legislation to progress from our distinct nation. This comes to the closure of that the Founding Fathers created this for the common good of our nation and it promotes many elements that shape America as we see it
Document B’s chart shows that during the 1992 Presidential Election, Bill Clinton did win the majority of the popular vote, but the win ratio was not large. The electoral votes showed a larger win ratio, causing Bill Clinton to be the definite President of the United States (Document B). In some cases, presidents that do not win the popular vote win the Electoral College. Although in some cases that is true, a majority of presidents have not been voted in that way. Document B demonstrates that by showing the percentage of votes for the popular and electorate votes for the 1980 and 1992 Presidential Elections.
Gregg II believes the Electoral College has long been one of the least understood and most unappreciated aspects of the American constitutional order. Yet, it has endured and continued to serve American democracy, why?—because it works. He argues a few times that our presidential elections are open, free, and fair due to the Electoral College. “Our fights can be bitter, but when they are decided at the ballot box they end with legitimate presidents and governable regimes,” Gregg says. He gives the example that in a presidential election, candidates are a race to win more votes than the other guy—and each is based on every vote being counted as well as all votes counting equally.
“In 1980 and 1992 the third party candidates received 6.6% and 18.9% of the popular vote but both received 0% of the Electoral Vote” (Document B). This is a significant difference of the popular vote and the electoral votes. It is not a correct representation of the citizens’ votes. Arthur Schlesinger wrote, “The abolition of state-by-state, winner-take-all electoral votes would speed the disintegration of the already weakened two-party system” (Document E). The Electoral College voters mostly belong to Republican and Democratic parties therefore they do not want a third party candidate to win.
The original system for U.S. elections was changed by the 12th Amendment, to the highly controversial method which uses “a number of electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the congress” (5). This electoral college, at the suggestion of their state’s vote count, then casts their votes on behalf of their citizens. In the 2016 election, we witnessed what some would consider a failure of the electoral college, where the popular vote was won by Hillary Clinton, while the electoral college elected Donald Trump. This was a situation that the forefathers did not intend when they created this system in order to prevent a monarchy in America, but it does pose a question on whether we should reconsider our election process. Article III establishes the judicial branch and its’ power, which extends to “all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this constitution, the Laws of the United States” (7).
Many people call themselves “true Americans” but most of them probably don’t even know the basics of government. One of the simplest things that American citizens do every 4 years is vote for their President and some people don’t understand the process in which this works. Some will say that they just count the votes and the candidate with the most votes wins, however that is not the case. Our founding fathers created the basis of our country and one thing that they created for the voting system is an Electoral College. An Electoral College is a process in which there are electors who cast your vote in your place for the vice president and the president.
The Electoral College has been one of the most debated topics in politics ever since its inception. The original idea behind the College was that, back in the 1700s, when communications were slow, voters were uninformed, and votes were counted by hand, the Framers needed a streamlined and efficient system for electing the President. The college worked – and made sense – back then. The question is: does it still apply today? Today, Americans have the technology to vote directly for a President, yet they don’t.
“The mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States … I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent” --Alexander Hamilton. Our contemporary presidential election system is referred as the electoral college, which provides the president to be determined by the candidate which receives the majority of the electoral votes. Furthermore, the electoral college has been persistently disputed whether it should be kept or eliminated, being there are various proponents that oppose it stating it goes against the will of the people or is undemocratic. However, the electoral college promotes candidates to build campaign platform for the national interest, thus
Electoral College is the United State’s democratic voting system of determining the next president. However, it poses a problem on how the United States chooses the next president. The Electoral College is a problem because electoral votes are the real determiners of the presidential election, states with more people have more electoral votes, and popular votes do not affect anything. Many politicians, people, etc. have gave their opinions on how to change the electoral college but the best way is to have popular carry significance and to allow each electoral voters to vote individually instead of losing their vote to majority. This way, choosing the president can be improved
The presidential election is the biggest and most important election held in the United States. In fact, during the Presidential election of 2012, approximately 57.5% of the registered voting population exercised their voting rights, while the 2014 congressional election turnout rate of 41.9 percent has been its lowest turnout rate since 1978. However, what these citizens who vote in the Presidential election may or may not know is that their votes do not directly influence who is chosen as president. What it does count toward is the number of Electoral College votes that a candidate receives, which would ultimately secure their presidency. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors, whom each candidate needs at least 270 of their votes
In Document C, Samples provides a federalist argument for supporting the electoral college by stating that it gives states an important role in choosing the president and thus supporting a fundamental principle of our democracy. The problem with Sample’s argument is that the electoral college is in essence undemocratic. We know that the electoral college is undemocratic because not only are small states over represented but a citizens vote can be weighted more or less depending on the state in which they reside in. In Document F, we are told what happens in case of a tie or no one winning the electoral vote. In case of this situation occurring then the House of Representatives will decide on who becomes president where state representatives will all get an equal vote.
This is not giving the citizens of the United States a direct say in who is their president, but rather they can pick people who
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
Technically under this system we do not directly vote for our President/Vice President. Instead they select a group of people who have pledged to vote for their chosen candidate. These groups of people that