Should Electoral College Be Abolished Dbq Essay

The framers at the Constitution Convention believed that the president should be indirectly voted for. The framers thought the citizens were not smart enough and were uninformed to be able to elect their own leader. They knew their leader had to be chosen in an informed process that would consider the desires of every citizen without giving away too much power to one group. The delegates did not trust that the voters had enough information to be able to vote on their own. This lead to the creation of the Electoral College. With the Electoral College system each state is given a certain number of electors based on that state's population. Each state has at least three electors. When citizens vote they are really just voting for the slate of

"A candidate can win an election with just two hundred and seventy electoral votes" (Document A). This means that a candidate could potentially win an election by just persuading eleven out of the fifty-five states. The number of electors in each state is decided by the number that that state has in The House of Representatives and Senate combined. This causes more power/weight to be given to the smaller states, making states such as Alaska, with a population of 710,231 and Wyoming, with a population of 563,626 equal regardless of their population differences with both states having three electoral votes (Document A). A candidate could potentially become president by just winning over the small states because that it where the most electoral votes are (Document A). This system allows the possibility of a president who is not favored by the majority to be

"The election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, where state delegates vote on the president" (Document F). A tie happened in 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. In 1824, Jackson won the popular and the electoral vote, however Adams won that election (Document G). For that particular election the House of Representative chose the president. This proves that the House, like the Electoral College, don't always vote what the people want. In the event of a tie all the power goes to the House of Representatives. When the House of Representatives decides who the president will be it is even less fair than the electoral votes. "Each state casts only one vote, the single representative from Wyoming, representing 500,000 voters, would have as much say as the 55 representatives from California, who represent 35 million voters" (Document F). It is unjust to make each state have the same amount of say because of the larger population differences. It is also unfair because that one person that represents your state might not vote with the way the majority voted. This is