The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The electoral college, created in 1787 and written into federal law in 1845, is a system in which citizens of the United States vote in general elections to choose a lineup of “electors” who pledge to vote for a particular party. Established by our Founding Fathers, it is made up of 538 members and is used by the people to indirectly elect the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States. Each state, however, does not obtain an unlimited amount of electors to choose from; the number of electors is equal to the number of members of Congress (House of Representatives and Senators) each state in entitled with. A candidate must receive a majority of 270 votes in order to win the presidency, an ideology that has begun to spiral down as the years, and presidential elections, go by. The electoral college was not always deemed evil as it is now, due to the era it …show more content…

Citizens have the option on the day of elections, to choose the candidate they believe is right for them. However, this does not mean that their candidate will actually be chosen in. The system of the electoral college allows candidates who did not win the popular vote (the election in which the citizens participate in) to ultimately win the election. For example, even if candidate A won the popular vote, the one casted by the people and what they believe is right, it is very possible for candidate B to win the election instead, due to the amount of elector votes they received. It is easier to note from real life examples seen in document G; many candidates that were ultimately chosen into the presidency did not receive their support from the people but from the electoral college. These instances make it difficult for the people of the nation to feel as though they truly have a say in the presidential election; most tend to give up voting in its

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