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Electoral College Essay

854 Words4 Pages

Dissolving the electoral college and instituting a voting system where every citizen’s vote count, could allow for third party members to finally have a strong chance of being a primary candidate for election. This may allow America’s voice to be heard better if everyone had a say in the election. For the most part, Americans have only two choices the primary, Democrat and the Primary Republican, but without the electoral college a lesser candidate that might not be backed with a substantial amount of monetary wealth could win. Finally, a state may be Republican or Democratic, but there are still citizens voting against the majority in the state. Those citizens don’t have say as of right now, but if the electoral college was done away with …show more content…

In Schlesinger’s article, how to Reform the Electoral College, he states “Since direct elections have obvious democratic appeal and since few Americans understand the Electoral College anyway, its abolition seems a …show more content…

According to Posner, “The Electoral College restores some of the weight in the political balance that large states lose by virtue of the mal-apportionment of the Senate decreed in the Constitution” (Posner). Although the electoral college does prevent some states from having too much power, it also gives immense power to other states, such as Texas, Florida, and California. Another concern for people that support the electoral college is that it helps control swing states from having too much pull. Despite some states having a stronger pull in the voting system, switching to a popular voting system would negate the swing state concept and help each individual citizen proclaim in own political believes, despite the state he/she lives in. William discusses the 2008 election and states, “It 's time for a national popular vote. Both the Mitt Romney and Barack Obama campaigns have been myopically focused on nine so-called swing states. These are states in which neither candidate is comfortably ahead, and campaigns are devoting almost all of their attention, visits, and money to winning them” (Williams). The electoral college needs to be done away with so that certain states don’t have forced attention based on their

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Electoral College Dbq

174 Words | 1 Pages

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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Should Electoral College Be Abolished Dbq Essay

622 Words | 3 Pages

The opposers of the Electoral College would argue that because of the “winner-takes-all” nature of these states, “candidates don't spend time in states they know they have no chance of winning, focusing only on the tight races in the ‘swing’ states,” in the words of Bradford Plumer from Source 2. Though this can be true, people fail to realize that those swing states are toss-ups in the presidential election because they feature differing interests and a wide array of voters that candidates must appeal to to succeed. Because the Electoral College gives votes to smaller and bigger states, it also guarantees that less populous states still have a say in who runs our country. And while they do have fewer votes than the larger states with millions of more overall voters, this system prevents the smaller regions from being completely unrepresented. It also ensures that candidates campaign around the country, not just in the few big states with substantial populations, since no singular area of the United States has enough votes to win the election for a nominee, as described in Source

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What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1241 Words | 5 Pages

I. The Electoral College is an unnecessary institution that undermines democracy by not ensuring the victory of the presidential candidate who wins the plurality of the popular vote, by creating a system in which not all votes are equal, and by incentivizing politicians to focus on the needs of specific states while ignoring others. II. A. The Electoral College is a body of people that represent each state within the United States and formally cast votes for their state in the election of the president.

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Should Electoral College Be Abolished Research Paper

837 Words | 4 Pages

In the current electoral college system, the value of one’s vote heavily depends on the state they reside in. For example, Document A shows that smaller states with fewer residents wield disproportionate influence in presidential elections due to the minimum of three electoral votes they hold, regardless of population size. By abolishing the electoral college, we can ensure that every individual’s vote is equal, no matter where they live, and that every voice is heard on a level playing field in deciding the nation's leader. Another problem with the Electoral College is that it almost always eliminates third-party candidates. In document B, the charts clearly state that no matter how many votes a third party candidate gets, they’re never going to win the electoral vote.

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Argumentative Essay: We Should Keep The Electoral College

326 Words | 2 Pages

I think we should keep the Electoral College. Electoral College is defined in our textbook as; “An unofficial term that refers to the electors who cast the states’ electoral votes” (Patterson, T.E., 2013). Electoral voting is tied in with the states popular voting. Choosing electoral college adds to the cohesiveness of the nation by obliging an appropriation of popular support to be elected President, improves the status of minority interests, contributes to the political dependability of the country by promising a two-party system, and keeps up an elected arrangement of government and representation (Kimberling, W.C., 2008). I think that the Electoral College system is a big part of the cohesiveness of our country and it requires the distribution

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Dbq Essay On The Electoral College

904 Words | 4 Pages

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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Electoral College Benefits

646 Words | 3 Pages

Also, I think that we should get rid of the popular vote. There are so many reasons why we need an Electoral College. The Electoral College keeps the coastal elites from basically choosing whoever they want for president. Many people often get mistaken and believe that the Founders wanted a popular vote and power to the people, however, nowhere in the constitution does it say anything about that. If there wasn’t an Electoral College then the smaller states would be at a complete disadvantage.

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How To Abolish The Electoral College

868 Words | 4 Pages

With the Electoral College people are “Ignoring New York, California and Texas or nearly 30% of the population”(Passage 3) People may not even get to choose who they vote for. With the electoral vote it makes states like Ohio more important than Rhode Island because it is a “swing state.” The process for the Electoral College is not even the same in some of the states because each state has it’s own rules. It also makes elections so much more complicated than it needs to be. The Electoral College takes away power from the people, and that is the foundation that this country was supposed to be built on.

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Electoral College Be Abolished

1378 Words | 6 Pages

It would be extremely difficult to add a constitutional amendment and remove the electoral college, and the current electoral college disproportionately represents some, thus some sort of reform is necessary to maintain the peace. According to the USA Today’s editorial board, “one idea worth considering is to shift away from winner-take-all in each state to a proportional allocation of electors based on statewide vote totals.” This election method would make all states like Nebraska and Maine, where electoral votes may be divided amongst parties. In using this system, the popular vote would be more important, but would not be the ultimate deciding factor of the election, essentially combining the arguments for the two opposing sides. The number of electoral votes for each state should not change, as that would mean the population of congress would have to change.

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Argumentative Essay: Should The Electoral College Be Abolished?

612 Words | 3 Pages

The electoral college also helps the small states have an opinion that actually is heard in the presidential election. In class, it was discussed that Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota together, though their combined population is less than that of Oklahoma, each of those states has three electoral votes, whereas Oklahoma just has seven votes. Going by electoral votes, a candidate would have a better chance at winning the election if they won over Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota versus Oklahoma. With the electoral college, a candidate could win over all thirty-nine small states and win the entire election. Though the candidate could be supported by less than a quarter of the population,

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Electoral College Dbq Analysis

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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Essay On Should Electoral College Be Abolished

837 Words | 4 Pages

This includes the popular vote not being taken seriously as the people's wishes, the need for only 12 states to win and become president, and the neglection of other states and the attention given to the swing states. All represents that the Electoral college is not what is limiting the power of the government and giving the people what they want, but instead is what truly empowers the government and takes away the choice we Americans should have and posses. While this is what the electoral college is doing now the abolishment of the electoral college should take place in order to give the power back to the people. Do you want to keep living your life truly powerless in the decision of our next leader? Or do you want to give the power back to the people of the USA, and take back our power to choose the right

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Electoral College Essay

1082 Words | 5 Pages

This concept has helped many of the southern states in the past, but it is not exactly applicable to today’s government. However, in today’s age, there are still many officials who fear the popular vote since their states may not be given the same representation, which is a genuine issue but based on the population growth these past years, one could counter that. On top of that, it seemed that the Electoral College clashed with many ideals of the American government, which should have been further

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Essay On Electoral College

975 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College system the founding fathers devised helps to balance out the power of the large, populous states. This system forces candidates to campaign in all states since they all carry some sway in the elections (“Understanding the Presidential Election”). However, other issues present themselves as well, like states with large independent voters that can be swayed and the issue that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election. The first issue is that states that are equally divided between democrats and republicans and hold a large number of electoral votes like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered swing states. (“Understanding the Presidential Election”)

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Argumentative Essay On Electoral College

975 Words | 4 Pages

(Black, 2012) So, while it is clear that the Electoral College was set up to ensure all states have a voice, it now seems to have the ability to take away the voice of the people. It is necessary to look at our voting process and make the necessary changes needed to ensure the process of electing our President represents the voice of the people. By switching to a majority vote we ensure that the voice of all people are not only heard, but are represented equally, which is how it should be under the one-person, one-vote

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