ipl-logo

Electoral College Pros And Cons

1049 Words5 Pages

The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton’s 227, thus winning the presidential election. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer …show more content…

Ideas that included making Congress the determining factor, having the state legislatures decide or having the popular vote directly determine who will become president. Ultimately these were voted against due to the fact that they were worried that this would only lead to the president wanting to please and serve just the individuals who would put him in office. Another idea that was included was to have a “Committee of Eleven”, that would indirectly decide who would become president. Furthermore, this is a very similar process to that of the Roman Catholic Church chooses the next pope. The “two systems are very similar in design and have both the same advantages and disadvantages.” (Kimberling, 1992, Pg. 2) It was to allow for the most knowledgeable, educated men to decide who would be chosen for the presidency. In the first design of the electoral college in article 2, section 1 of the …show more content…

It was also during this time that through writings of the likes of Edmund Burke and James Madison. Due to the presidential election of 1800, it ultimately led to the bargaining of the presidency that the electoral college was supposed to prevent, it is because of this that the 12th amendment was added to the constitution of 1804. The 12th amendment specifies that each elector cast one vote for president and have a separate vote going towards the vice president. This would make it be the runner-up of the presidential election will not just become the vice president. The 12th amendment also states that if no candidate receives a majority of the votes the House of Representatives will be the ones to select the president from the top three candidates. The idea of the popular vote was not widely viewed as an alternative to the electoral college. Due to the fact that most of the country had not changed drastically, this is why I believe now we need to discuss a possible change to the process. (Kimberling, 1992, Pg.

Show More
Related

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

351 Words | 2 Pages

The United States government is one of the most admired and complex in the world, On the contrary one of the fundamental components that has an extensive impression on the American People and the Election is the Electoral College. Our founding fathers created The Electoral College over two hundred years ago, and it is still in effect today. They feared that having just the Popular Vote would give too much power to one person. In this paper, we will be discussing what the Electoral College is, the benefits and disadvantages of the Electoral College as well as if the Electoral College should be abolished or reconstructed.

Read More

Dbq Electoral College

1594 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

Summary Of A Brilliant Solution

1319 Words | 6 Pages

After much heated debate, and leaving the subject of the executive branch and returning to it, an idea was proposed. This proposal goes to the roots of our nation as it was made in compromise of the two most popular standing ideas. This proposal was the electoral college. This gave the votes to the electors who chose how their state would use their electoral votes. The votes were based on the size of each state.

Read More

Compare And Contrast The Articles Of Confederation

499 Words | 2 Pages

After much debated the created the Electoral College which is a presidential voting system that a fixed number of votes were cast in each state for whom they wanted to become president. Although these are three major compromises that the farmers had created the electoral college is the only system that we still use today because eventually the south wouldn't appeal to many of the northern states due to slavery which started the civil

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

748 Words | 3 Pages

Watching this year’s election was shocking. Against all predictions, against every analysis, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States. But were those predictions really off? As the LA Times put it,” Hillary Clinton got roughly the same number of votes that President Obama received four years ago en route to his reelection, but she nonetheless lost the presidency to Donald Trump, who came in at least 2.8 million votes behind her.” This is, of course, because of the electoral college.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

561 Words | 3 Pages

The Electoral College is an antiquated process the founding fathers established in the Constitution as a compromise to elect a president not from a vote in Congress or popular vote of qualified citizens. But by both The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The College consists of 538 electors, which a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. States are entitled an allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1344 Words | 6 Pages

Do We Need the Electoral College? Following the 2016 election many individuals we shocked to find Donald Trump had won the Presidency while not having the popular vote. They were unaware of how the electoral college works and how the president is actually elected through the electoral college rather than the popular vote. But, before we find out if we need the electoral college, we must look into why it was created, and look at the pros and cons of the electoral college as well as the pros and cons of the proposed system to replace it.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

785 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

665 Words | 3 Pages

The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. With many citizens not understanding whether or not their vote is actually being counted during the election, more debates have risen on if popular vote should be the deciding factor of presidential determinations instead. Popular vote is an actual count of individual votes from all states in America while the Electoral College is a measure of the House of Representatives and Senators choosing directly who the president should be (Kimberling, 1992). The reasoning behind why the Electoral College was the determining factor for president was declared by the founding fathers decades ago to ensure equality (Pavia, 2011). Recently, critics have expressed that this system is not as equal as predetermined.

Read More

Electoral College Pros And Cons

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,

Read More

Arguments Of The Constitutional Convention

341 Words | 2 Pages

When the delegates of the Constitutional Convention met they wanted to establish a leader since under the Articles of the Confederation there was no executive branch. So the delegates decided to create the offices of the president of the vice president. The delegates were in fear of a creating tyrant like they had previously with Britain, so they had to limit this new leader’s power. To prevent a tyrant from ruling again the delegates creating the Electoral College and this system is where the people select to president and the vice president indirectly. The reason the delegates did not let the people chose directly was they did not trust them because most Americans were illiterate at the time and heard their news from others.

Read More

Problems With American Democracy: The Electoral College

1120 Words | 5 Pages

For a presidential candidate to win in the College, the candidate must obtain 270 votes. According to Losco and Baker, the Framers devised the Electoral college stop political infighting that might ensue, but believed that it would be unimportant in presidential races. Under the original rules of the College, the winner in the College became president and the second place candidate became vice president. In the election of 1796, this resulted in a president from one party and a vice president from another party.

Read More

Dbq Essay On The Electoral College

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

Read More

Electoral College Problem

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

Read More

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

Read More

More about Electoral College Pros And Cons

Open Document