Sophie Goldenberg Honors Civics Electoral College DBQ Should the Electoral College be Repealed or Remain as is? On every first Tuesday in November of every fourth year, many Americans go to the polls to vote for their favorite candidate. Little do they know that they are actually voting for electors who then go vote for the president. This process is called the Electoral College. The Electoral College has been our presidential election procedure since 1787. This system was created to indirectly choose the president in a way that fits the desire of the citizens, which also prevents uninformed voters from deciding upon the country’s leader. Each state receives one electoral vote for each member of Congress, which totals up to 538 electors. …show more content…
The Electoral College frequently results in a distinct presidential winner despite the popular vote being level. The pie charts of the 1980 presidential election, gathered from various sources, compares the percentage of popular votes and electoral votes for each candidate. Ronald Reagan, who won this election, appeared to only win with 50.7% of the popular vote. However, Reagan actually won the presidency with 91% of the electoral votes. The Electoral College made it appear as though Reagan dominated the election. In reality, this was a very close race between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, with Reagan winning the popular vote by about 8.4 million votes. This does not properly reflect the desires of the people. On this same chart, John B. Anderson, who was an independent, received 6.6% of the popular vote in the 1980 election. Nonetheless, it appears as though these votes had no significance because Anderson received 0% of the electoral votes. While a percentage of the population believed that Anderson should have won the election, the Electoral College’s results presented the votes in a way that made it appear as though no individual wanted him to become president. Because of the winner-takes-all system, some presidents have won the election without the majority of the popular vote. In the 48 states that use the winner-takes-all system, whichever candidate wins that state’s popular vote receives all of the electoral votes for that particular state. The data gathered from the 2000 election demonstrates that despite winning the popular vote by about 540,000 votes, Al Gore proceeded to lose the election to George W. Bush by only 5 electoral votes. Florida’s 29 electoral votes were the deciding factor in this election. Because of the winner-takes-all system, when Bush won the popular vote in Florida, he was awarded with these votes, costing Gore the election. Bush