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Dbq Electoral College

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The framers of the United States Constitution had a difficult task deciding how this country should be governed. Many challenges to their thoughts, fears, and decisions proliferate even after more than two centuries. Many disagree, for instance, with the way in which our nation's President and Vice President are elected. In essence, The Electoral College is a compromise between the choice of President and Vice President being made by a vote in Congress and being made by a popular vote of the people. While our framers believed the system would protect the country from such an important decision being made by ill-informed persons, or from a power-grabbing Congress, one must grant that the process was instituted in a world where it took weeks …show more content…

In 1824 the election resulted in the presidency of John Quincy Adams as a result of the 12th Amendment. After the Federalist party disintegrated, this election was run solely by Democratic-Republicans. “Adams appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of State which resulted in charges of corrupt bargain” (Martin). Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1876 after winning one of the most “controversial presidential elections known to date” (Martin). The Compromise of 1877 gave electoral votes to Hayes, marking the first presidential election in “20 years in which a Democratic candidate won majority of popular vote” (Martin). Benjamin Harrison became president in 1888 after favoring the Tariff policy which was the election's principal issue. “Harrison swept the majority of the North and Midwest by a margin of 1% or lower to achieve the majority of the electoral votes” (Kelly). Cleveland lacked a strong campaign and his different policies on currency and tariff reform created many enemies among farmers and industrialists. In 2000 George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore. It took 5 weeks to settle this election which was the “closest election since 1876” (Kelly). Additionally, it was one of the most controversial in history. Requests for recounts abounded; punch card ballots were considered the source of voter error. The Florida Supreme Court recount was halted by the US Supreme Court who decided that principles in recounting were

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The book Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 is a book describing what led up, and what happened during the 1800 election. Furling went as far as to mention the American revolution and talked all the way to the year 1800. Although he didn’t talk about the 1800 election until the last couple chapters, Ferling filled the readers minds with what was going on in America before the election. Ferling gives a short biography about all the candidates in the election of 1800, like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Charles Pinckney, and Aaron Burr.

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Tilden J.B. Hayes What is known as the compromise of 1877 was an undocumented deal that accommodated both sides of the party running for presidency and ended the reconstruction era a term that is used to cover two parts one being the entire history of the country following the civil war which ended in 1865 and the other focuses on how the southern united states and how they build back up after the war. With the south being so vulnerable the election for presidency the election was a way of them gaining some sort of leverage. Black republicans gained no benefit from this compromise at all. They lost their power in politics.

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1458 Words | 6 Pages

The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 election. It resulted with the United States pulling the last of the troops from the south, ending the Reconstruction Era and giving the south power over their land. Both Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden had great political talent, but of course, they saw being president as something else in their own eye. With Hayes coming from the North and Tilden coming from the South, their goals were going to be pretty different. The Civil War ended not too many years before hand, so the election was going to be very rough.

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Throughout this time, our views on the Electoral College have went in all kinds of ways.  The big reason for the Electoral College, was so that the whole country had a more equal say on choosing the national president.   In each state the electors gather on the Monday following the second Tuesday of December. Each state has electoral votes according to the number of House members and Senators it has in Congress.

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According to ushistory.org, “The election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was an emotional and hard-fought campaign.” Likewise, 720towin.com states that, “In the United States Presidential election of 1800, sometimes referred to as the "Revolution of 1800," Vice President Thomas Jefferson defeated incumbent president John Adams.” Despite common consensus, the election was never a fight between two different party members, Jefferson and Adams, but instead between two Democratic-Republicans: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. In 1800, there was no national convention to decide a party’s single nominee. Parties sent in two delegates, since the Constitution ruled, ironically enough, until after the election of 1800, that the candidate to receive the second most amount of votes was awarded the position of vice-president. The election resulted in 64 electoral votes for Federalist, Charles Pinckney, 65 for John Adams, and a tie result of 73 votes for Democratic-Republicans, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, therefore pitting the two Democratic-Republicans against each other in a race to be president.

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493 Words | 2 Pages

Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College The Electoral College system is an indirect system of voting. Under the Electoral College, American citizens are voting for an elector, who would then vote for the President. It is made up of 538 electors, who based on the public vote, cast their areas vote for president. Those citizens are not directly voting for the President. In order for a person to win presidency, they must obtain 270, or the majority, of the Electoral College votes.

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518 Words | 3 Pages

The electoral college is a system where people vote for electors. Then the electors communicate with the people and the electors pick the candidates. Next the people vote between democrat and republican parties. The problems with the electoral college voting system is that the electors do not listen to what the people want and they just make their own decisions, there is a chance of a tie in the electoral college, and also the people don't even get to vote on who the electors are. Furthermore, a very large problem with the electoral college is that the electors are not listening to the people.

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After the election, the candidate who won was General Ulysses S. Grant. Therefore the republican party won the presidential election. In total, Ulysses S. Grant had gathered 214 electoral votes, where as Horatio Seymour had only a total of 80 electoral votes. At the time the presidential candidate only needed 214 electoral votes to win the presidency because not all of the 50 states were established at the time. In the year 1868 there was only a total of 294 electoral votes.

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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.

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634 Words | 3 Pages

The Electoral College is the election of the president and vice president where for over a hundred years the electors were equired to be chosen by the voters with the exception of Members of Cogress. When each state votes, “the voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidates, they are actually voting for the slate of electors in their state pledged to those candidates” (Neale 2017, p.1) so the people have a voice, but their are knowledgeable electors who have the final say. It is also very possible with this set up that the winner of the electoral votes does not always get the popular vote (Posner, 2012). Madison believed that the Electoral College would “keep the states involved, but retain the role of the people” (Ornstein 2001,

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To further complicate matters both Thomas Jefferson and the Vice Presidential candidate Aaron Burr both received the same number of votes, as per the Constitution this unique situation caused the election to be decided in the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives was very divided, and after “thirty-five ballots, neither man received a majority of the votes.” (Foner 233) Alexander Hamilton intervened on behalf of Jefferson, as he believed him the better candidate and less likely to dismantle his financial program. This fact tipped the balance in the House of Representatives and Jefferson was awarded the Presidency.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

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

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109 Words | 1 Pages

Electoral College is the United State’s democratic voting system of determining the next president. However, it poses a problem on how the United States chooses the next president. The Electoral College is a problem because electoral votes are the real determiners of the presidential election, states with more people have more electoral votes, and popular votes do not affect anything. Many politicians, people, etc. have gave their opinions on how to change the electoral college but the best way is to have popular carry significance and to allow each electoral voters to vote individually instead of losing their vote to majority. This way, choosing the president can be improved

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1026 Words | 5 Pages

In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it

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503 Words | 3 Pages

Also we use this system to make sure that no election or that very few election come back inconclusive. There has been much criticism of the Electoral College system in the past due to a candidate receiving the national vote but losing due to not enough electoral votes. Some examples of this are; in 1876, Ruther B. Hayes won the Electoral College vote but lost the national popular vote to Samuel Tilden, in 1888, Grover Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison due to Harrison having more electoral votes (Ginsberg 387). However, the most recent criticism has come from the 2000 presidential election George W. Bush vs Al Gore. In the election Gore won the popular vote by 500,000 votes but Bush won by four Electoral College votes (Ginsberg

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