The Electoral College 1. Identify the reasoning of the framers of the Constitution for creating such an unusual system by which we choose our presidents. a. In 1787 the Electoral College was created by the framers of the Constitution. They devised a method to elect a president that would ensure that the person elected would not gain too much power and independence. The framers biggest fear was the fear of power, and they did their upmost to limit and control the control and limit the power of the president. Due to the fact the framers needed to devise a presidency potent enough to govern yet incapable of exercising power the founding fathers came up with the Electoral College. This system was put into place to act as a check and balance systems …show more content…
Though the Electoral College is loved by some, many people including Professor Joyce Appleby were highly opposed to the idea. Appleby believed that the two vote bonus in the Senate was a principal defect in the Electoral College. She then went on the back up that statement through a series of facts including the potent point that 31 of the smallest states each send six or fewer representatives to Congress, which means that the two-vote bonuses amount to a twenty-five percent increase in the voting power of the citizens living in that smaller state. To continue she also stated that the smallest states such as Delaware have more per capita strength than California because of the two-vote bonus given to the state. Appleby believes that “nothing could justify this gross deviation from the one-person, one-vote principal of democracy.” Professor Joyce Appleby throughout her statement talks about how the Electoral College is tremendously flawed because of the two-vote bonus that the smaller states are given and that it is a direct violation to the democracy that Americans live by …show more content…
Though some people were highly opposed to the idea of the Electoral College others were all for the idea. A professor by the name of David Kyvig was very much in favor of the Electoral College. He believed that because it came into being as part of the Great Comprise between large and small states in1787, the Electoral College was almost certainly unalterable. He believes that in the framers scheme was deeply embedded in the idea of federalism and that it is likely to survive as long as the states resist the centralization of political power in the national governments hands. Professor David Kyvig also stated that the Electoral College echoes the compromise that benefits the populous states in the legislature. Professor David Kyvig believed that the manner in which the American people elect the president does not have any flaws and that it benefits both states with large populations and
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.
Many people were opposed to the idea of having the people vote into power the highest form of political office. But yet the people did need a voice in that matter and thus the Electoral College was
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
1)First of all, I have learned that Electoral College was established in the U.S Constitution (Article II, Section 1) to find a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and popular vote. It was created to give an extra power to small states. Madison thought that Electoral College would be the better that popular voting because of the prevalence of slavery in the South. In my opinion it had more sense back days than today.
Small states are extremely over represented. The Electoral
When you go and vote for president, do you think your vote goes toward the decision of who becomes president? If you do, think again because the system is not as clear cut as it seems. In 1787 during the Constitutional Convention, the delegates discussed a way to vote for president without having the passions of the people and average voters getting in the way. The Electoral College has 538 members total which are divided among states, with each state receiving the amount of electoral votes that corresponds with their population. The outdated system known as the Electoral College, should officially be abolished from the process of the presidential election in the United States.
The system was an experimental product of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. The delegates to the convention, as was the rest of the world, were inexperienced with the formation of a democracy, and made their best attempt to strike a balance between a true democracy and appeasing the newly-united states. As the fragile nation quickly discovered, each of the states had its own needs, and compromise was a necessity. Supporters of the Electoral College often downplay the role that slavery played in its creation by insisting that the compromise was intended to protect the small states from the will of the large ones, but the true divisions that the Electoral College intended to patch were between the North and the South, and they involved one key issue: slavery
Alexander Hamilton’s essay, The Federalist 58, was an attempt to convince the state of New York to ratify the constitution. The essay explained the plan the framers of the Constitution put in place to elect the president. The people would vote for the candidate they supported, but ultimately the president would be selected by a group of 538 electors who were appointed by the people. This group is known as the Electoral College. The Framers of the Constitution chose to use the Electoral College as the method for selecting the president as it assured that the president would be capable and qualified, eliminated corruption, and lessened turmoil in the election process.
The Electoral College is a terrible system designed for electing the president of the United States. For the people who do not really know or understand the Electoral College, it is a body of people who ultimately decide who wins the presidential election. Each state holds an election for the popular vote. The candidate who wins of the state's popular vote gets all the states allowed electoral votes. How many electoral votes a state gets is determined by the population of the state.
The Electoral College was created when the small states feared that large states would be more powerful in determining presidency. Therefore, the Electoral College was created and is considered to be a technique that makes it easier to elect a president and a vice president. The way it works is that each and every state gets electors. The amount of electors is the sum of the number of members the House and the Senate has. The states decided on how many electors are chosen.
Although many have made their case against the Electoral College system, it is a necessary institution in the Presidential election because it preserves Federalism and encourages the two party system. One reason why the Electoral College is a necessary evil is because it secures the power of the states in the election, thereby upholding Federalism. As previously indicated, when citizens vote, they are voting for the amount of electors in their state to vote for their candidate of choice. The number of these electoral votes varies from state to state due to the fact that they are made up of the sum of its state’s Senators and House Representatives.
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.
(Black, 2012) So, while it is clear that the Electoral College was set up to ensure all states have a voice, it now seems to have the ability to take away the voice of the people. It is necessary to look at our voting process and make the necessary changes needed to ensure the process of electing our President represents the voice of the people. By switching to a majority vote we ensure that the voice of all people are not only heard, but are represented equally, which is how it should be under the one-person, one-vote
The Electoral College system the founding fathers devised helps to balance out the power of the large, populous states. This system forces candidates to campaign in all states since they all carry some sway in the elections (“Understanding the Presidential Election”). However, other issues present themselves as well, like states with large independent voters that can be swayed and the issue that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election. The first issue is that states that are equally divided between democrats and republicans and hold a large number of electoral votes like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered swing states. (“Understanding the Presidential Election”)
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