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Dbq Essay On The Electoral College

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The Electoral College has been a part of the American National government ever since its beginnings, but is it the system that we should keep using? The Electoral College is made up of electors. Each state has 3 or more electors based on the amount of Senators and Representatives it has. These electors each vote for a running presidential candidate. And these votes directly determine who will become president. While this is a system that is working and has worked before, it is not entirely fair. The Electoral College has its flaws. For starters, third parties are given virtually no chance to win the electoral vote. The amount of electors for each state doesn’t give all states a fair amount of power and the electoral system as a whole undermines …show more content…

But third parties can also run for office. And while these extra parties can run for president, they have an extremely low chance of winning. Thanks to the Electoral College. In the 1992 Presidential Election, candidates Bill Clinton (Democrat), George H.W. Bush (Republican), and Ross Perot (Independent) all ran for office. Clinton won 43% of the popular vote, Bush won 37.5% and Perot won 18.9%. However, when it came to the electoral vote, Clinton won 69% and Bush won 31% while Perot got 0% (Doc B). Candidates in third parties rarely ever win to become president and sometimes even get no electoral votes at all. Many of these smaller parties are often overshadowed by the bigger main two, Democrats and Republicans, leaving no room for other independent ideas or opinions. As Geroge Will states, “The system bolsters the two party-system by discouraging independent candidacies…” (Doc E). Other parties continue to be almost disregarded and pushed out of presidency to the fault of the Electoral College. Third parties introduce new ideas and perspectives that are important and should be heard but the electoral system continues to put people from the main two parties as president and discourage those from the extra, additional ones. Causing people to turn a blind eye to these smaller, lesser known minor …show more content…

The amount of Electors for a state are found by adding up that states senators and representatives. This method is not fair at all and makes it so smaller states' votes matter more. Add up the electoral votes for the District of Columbia and the electoral votes for 12 of the smallest states, you’ll get 44 Electoral College votes with a population of about 12.5 million. But compared to Illinois that has a population of about 12.8 million, that state only has 20 Electoral College votes (Doc D). This system clearly favors small states. It causes them to matter more and get more votes which is unfair. This is restated by George C. Edwards, ”The Electoral College violates political equality. It is not a neutral counting device...” (Doc D). This system was set in place to give all states an equal voice and it fails to do so. Smaller states are greatly favored by The Electoral College which is unjust. It shows a clear amount of bias which goes against The Electoral College’s point of equality and correctness. It directly undermines bigger states and stops democracy from being fully

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The electoral college is a process the founding fathers established in the constitution with the intent to create a safeguard between the population and the selection of a president, and to give extra power to smaller states. However, based on the information presented in the articles the electoral college should be abolished as it violates our right of political equality, and fails to represent a third, independent, party in any election. Although there are many reasons to abolish the electoral college, the principal reason to take action would be the result of an obvious violation of our right to be politically equal. As shown in the chart provided (Doc D) 12 of the lowest populated states and the District of Columbia have almost the

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The electoral college is unfair to the third party because they don’t get votes from the electoral college. Based on the presidential election from 1980 and 1992, it have show that the third party don’t get electoral vote(Doc B). The third party have a disadvantage which make it impossible for the third party to win the election because of the “winner take it all” system. According to George Will, he say that it discriminate smaller party and only help the main two parties(Doc E). The electoral college supports a two party system, discourages third party, and thereby restrict choices available to the

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Some states, particularly ones with smaller populations, are given more electoral votes than their population should denote due to their automatic extra two senatorial votes. The twelve smallest states and Washington D.C. combine for 44 electoral votes with only 12.5 million votes. The states of Illinois has a total of 12.8 million people, but only has 20 electoral votes, less than half of the electoral votes the small states possess (Doc D). The lack of correlation shown in this example epitomizes the issues the Electoral College

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For example Puerto Rico has an estimated population of 4.4 million, but since Puerto Rico has no constitutional amendment to recognize them they are not allowed to vote even though, Puerto Rico is part of the United States territory and the people of Puerto Rico have US citizenships. If US citizens move to a foreign they are still allowed to vote by sending a post card with their vote to the last state they resigned from even US astronauts are allowed to vote from all the way from space making the US territories the only places that are not allowed to vote. Another argument would be that all votes aren't equal because the “electoral college makes some votes more equal than others” which gives the small states and states with low population more electoral votes then they should have.(Grey) If the population were divided by the number of electoral college votes every 574,000 people would be represent by one electoral vote, but since the electoral votes are distributed by state not people there are consequences that arise. Some of the larger states are ripped from their votes while the smaller states are given more votes do to the minimum 3 vote rule. With that being said the electoral college “pretend that few people live were they do and more people live where they don’t” giving states like California and Texas less votes then they deserve.

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Sometimes candidates win the popular vote but not the electoral vote. This has happened four times in American History, in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. (Doc G). In 1876 Hayes was elected president by electoral votes, even though Tilden won in popular vote. (Doc G)

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Firstly, the Electoral College can lead to only two candidates being mostly represented. This can lead to not many choices in candidates, making the people choices the voters have restricted to the only two major parties, creating a non-diverse voting scene. Furthermore, this can also lead to other parties that aren't as popular or major getting success from the electoral college. “Throughout American history, the Electoral College system also has made it more difficult for minor-party candidates to be successful in presidential races.”

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The Electoral College system assures balanced power between the states, puts the independent parties under control, grants balanced voting, and supports the major political parties. The Electoral College has proven itself to be very sufficient in determining the president and the vice president of the United States. Since this system has been successful since our Founding Fathers created it, there should be no reason as to why we should get rid of the Electoral

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Under the Electoral College, A candidate can become president with only 21.8% of the popular vote. Meaning that 78.2% of people wouldn’t of chose this candidate for president. Also swing states unfairly allow for only the major two political parties to win, even with a majority votes for a independent party. Another unfair issue is that Smaller population states have a superior role in the election process than a higher population state. For example, Wyoming has one elector for every 177,556 people and Texas has one elector for about every 715,499.

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The way the electoral college is not fair to the people if it come to a tie or nobody reaches the 270 votes needed because their vote does not matter anymore and it goes to the house of representatives and they will side with whatever party they are with, Winner takes all method makes it so third party does not have any chance to win at all even if a 50/49 vote all electoral votes will go to the 50%, Lastly it needs to be abolished because it is not fair to smaller states and prefers larger states with having a lot more electoral votes than other states. The electoral college is something that was working in the past because the states were not associated with any party and with the changes to America and her people the way we elect our leader needs to change

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Jackson Fullmer Mr. Baker Government March 2nd, 2023 The Electoral College is a system that has been around for a very long time. It is used to determine which President and Vice President candidates are going to be elected. While some argue that it should be replaced with an alternative method, there are several reasons why the Electoral College is the best option for America.

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Consequently, fewer voters may go to the polls in those states. Despite complaints, it would take an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to change the electoral college system. That is considered very unlikely to happen. People who are for the concept of the electoral college may argue otherwise. For instance, in source 3 it says, “that even though the electoral college may seem a bit shady and unfair at times it still works.”

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The Electoral College also enforces the two-party system, because of the winner-takes-all system, which makes it so that smaller third parties stand no chance of winning any electoral votes. People will also be discouraged from voting for a third party, feeling that a vote for a third party is “wasted” and would rather support “the lesser of two evils,” by voting for one of the two parties they would rather win, even if that party isn’t exactly the party they want to

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It is nearly impossible for any one specific group or party to attempt to control the end results of the election. The Heritage Foundation says it best “Our Electoral College system has provided us with orderly elections and a stable government for more than 200 years” (The Electoral College: A Safeguard For Stable Elections). This quote is fantastic, it uses the word “orderly” to show the consistency of the system every four years. This also means over the years there has been a major risk reduction of any type of contested or disputed election outcome.

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The electoral college is holding back new system and parties, and this is an example after both presidential candidates were both hated, should tell us is this system will not get better, until we “the people tell and make popular that these system need to be

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This may be true, but in this method, candidates might only spend time in certain battleground districts instead of the entire state and there is a possibility of Gerrymandering. The Electoral College will also resolve ties. “This happened with President Nixon in 1968 and President Clinton in 1992, when both men won the most electoral votes while receiving just 43% of the popular vote. The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections.” When in the possibility of a tie, the Electoral College is ready with the decision to recount to get a clear

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