The Votes that Should Count The United States should abolish the Electoral College, by amending the Constitution, and use the Direct Popular Vote process for presidential elections. Though the U.S. Constitution Article two, section one, clause two states that the appointment of electors belong exclusively to the states (National Conference of State Legislator), it is seemingly pointless to carry out national voting polls of the public if only electoral college votes will hold the count for the next elected president. Every three years around the United States, candidates who decide to run for the seat of presidency begin their campaign to win the votes of Americans, but for what? They know that the real votes are going to come down to only the Electoral College votes. American citizens are lead to believe that by going to the voting polls, and filling in the little dot on the voter card for their own choice in which the next president will be will actually count. When in reality, they are only voting for who will be elected to vote for the next president. This is the choice of electors, and the selection is governed by state laws (Barbara A. Bardes). …show more content…
These are based on population size that come from census in which are conducted every 10 years. Based on the current system of Electoral College, some states are basically given to either the democrats or republicans no matter the votes of the citizens counted; these are considered “safe states” (Greer). With the understanding that a candidate can win the popular vote with over fifty percent, or probably with over seventy percent, but if the opposing candidate still holds a higher electoral vote by even a margin of a single vote (271), then that candidate is the chosen president, which is unjust to the American
Even though the United States is supposed to be a democracy, the people do not actually elect the president directly. Instead, a group of electors from each state vote for the president through a process known as the electoral college. Through this system, a group of state-elected officials from each state, not the people, decide who wins the presidency. The number of electors a state has is relative to its population size. For example, a state with a smaller population receives less votes than a state with a greater population.
“The right to vote gives every eligible American a voice in our electoral politics. There's too much at stake to stay silent as this right is eroded. ”(Martin O'Malley).Voting is supposed to be a guaranteed right to all but in reality, this is not the case. It is to be expected that the political parties running for office enjoy the process behind the Electoral College. The political parties influence the American citizens to vote for their candidate as the next President in order to benefit from the candidate's power.
Another variation of the electoral college is the proportional system. This system splits the state’s electoral college votes by the popular vote percentages. It is like a mix of the electoral college and the popular vote. The winner of the state gets two votes, like the Congressional District Method. According to FairVote.com, “This way, a candidate who comes in second place in a state with 45% of the popular vote would receive 45% of the state's votes from that state, instead of 0%.”
No other nation has so ornamental a manner of determining their leader in this circumstance, as president of the United States. The framers petrified that a presidential plebiscite and—with reminiscences of how the Roman republic deteriorated into an kingdom—dreaded that the people together with a president who controlled the armed forces might imperil liberty and constitutional government. Their distress of mobocracy led them to cast-off popular election of the president (Genovese “Electoral College”). Unlike the electoral process for members of Congress or governors, citizens do not directly elect the president of the United States. Instead, the president is chosen by a group of 538 electors that comprise the Electoral College.
Smaller states, or states with a smaller population are given more electoral votes per voter than larger states. For example, for every 177,556 residents in Wyoming is equivalent to one electoral vote. However, in Texas, 715,499 people are the equal to one vote. In New York, a vote is around four times less than a vote from Wyoming. These two examples show how much “voting power” certain states have.
The Electoral College is a process that was established by the founding fathers of the United States to elect the President of the country. It was established as a compromise between the election of the President by popular vote and election of the President by vote in Congress. The Electoral College is composed of three parts: the selection of the Electors, the Elector meeting where they cast their votes, and the counting of the votes by Congress. In this paper, I will discuss the composition of and procedures within this Electoral College system in detail. The Electoral College is composed of a total of 538 Electors, of which 270 votes are needed as a majority to elect the President.
Around 6-in-10 U.S. adults (63%) say that the electoral college should be abolished and that the popular vote should be the deciding factor to see who wins the presidential election. The Electoral College should be abolished because the system itself is outdated and it would allow voters to have an equal voice in the presidential election. The electoral college should be abolished because the system itself is outdated. In 1787, the electoral college proposal was written by the founding fathers.
Also, I think that we should get rid of the popular vote. There are so many reasons why we need an Electoral College. The Electoral College keeps the coastal elites from basically choosing whoever they want for president. Many people often get mistaken and believe that the Founders wanted a popular vote and power to the people, however, nowhere in the constitution does it say anything about that. If there wasn’t an Electoral College then the smaller states would be at a complete disadvantage.
From September 1st to September 17th, I asked 17 random students from the University of Texas at San Antonio if we should abolish the Electoral College. Out of my findings, I discovered that the majority of students were for the abolishment of the Electoral College. The results were relatively close with 58.82% of the respondents for abolishing the Electoral College and 41.18% for preserving it. However, there was a margin of error of 23.76%, and a 95% confidence interval of 35.06% to 82.58%.
People are not necessary informative of the voting system right now, the truth is that we, as voters, are not getting our votes counted like they should be. Even if we vote, if our choice of candidacy's number of votes are more than the opposed candiddate's number of votes, clearly, the state's vote is for the candidate with a lot of votes. Now let's say we have 47% and the opposed candidate has 53%. That 47% means nothing because the 53% has outnumbered our choice of candidacy which mean a big lost for us. Which clearly is unjust for the American voters.
Each state gets as many votes as they have senators and representatives of the state. The winner-take-all system is used in 48 out of the 50 states which means all of their electors are awarded to the candidate who wins the most of the votes in the state. In Maine and Nebraska the electoral votes are assigned by proportional representation. This means that the
The states gets to how many electoral votes by the number of Senators and the House of Representatives. The Constitution has never mention
How are the number of electoral votes decided for each state? Each state gets as many electoral ballots as its joined total of senators and representatives. At a bare minimum each state gets three electoral votes. Larger states have equitably more electoral votes because a state 's House delegation is decided by the population. How many electoral votes are in your home state?
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.
After all of each state's voting numbers are counted, they add up to 270. Whomever candidate reaches that amount of votes than they are declared the winner and the president-elect of the United States. Some might think America's way of voting is unfair, some might think it is fair “The U.S. Constitution doesn't allow for direct election of the President” (Mark VandeWettering). The system is based on citizens votes that ultimately determine which candidate receives the job as president of the United States. With mandatory voting approved by the government, there would be a larger voting margin learning for a further accurate