The Electoral College helped to protect and promote the two party system seen throughout the United States government. The electoral college helps to keep the two party system be forcing a third party into moving into one of the two main parties: Democratic or Republican (3) This can be seen as an advantage because votes would end up being spread among the different party candidates that it could make it difficult to count the votes, lead to a possible number of recounts, and make the whole process much more difficult. This leads to another advantage of being able to prevent enormous amounts of voter fraud. The electoral college can prevent this because no matter how many voter's ballots are counted, the electoral college keeps only a set amount of electoral votes. Another Advantage that can be seen is that the Electoral College motivate compromise among the parties but also help to promote moderation of political beliefs.
It seems as though the government wanted every other form of electing a president to fail, because they just continued to go to the next solution without trying to understand the problem and fixing it. It almost seems as if win the electoral college came into the play they just knew that it would work somehow because they kept trying at it until it worked. The article How the Electoral College System Works states that “the Electoral college system almost never functioned as they intended, but, prescribed only the system’s basic elements, leaving ample room for development.” To sum up my beliefs on the topic, I believe as though the government should get rid of the Electoral College because it’s a scam on America.
In my own words some of the pros and cons of the Electoral College are as followed and explained. My pros are that it maintains the federalist system, and allows for minority interests to be represented. It helps maintain the federalist system by keeping all of the branches of government equal. It helps allow for minority interests to be represented by helping the interest and have the ability to be represented and backed up by bigger parties to help get votes. My cons of the Electoral College are that is does not reflect the popular vote, and lowers voter turnout.
This data demonstrates the low chances of a third party candidate being able to gain any electoral votes. The system clearly disproportionately gives out electoral votes, making it especially difficult for third party candidates to win any elections. Additionally, in the 2000 presidential election, a third party candidate, Nader, went up against Gore and G.W. Bush. While Gore obtains 266 electoral votes, Bush receives 271, automatically making him the winner. On the other hand, the third party candidate, Nader, received a total of zero electoral votes, even though he gained 2,882,955 popular votes.
It gives the smaller states a voice, that could have been ignored if the popular vote only counted. The Electoral College helps the candidates and their party keep their campaign organized, if the they know the amount of votes they are looking for they can organize how much time they spend campaigning in each state (Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College). Also helps keep a sense of stability, but setting up a 2 party system of voting, and also gives the states to make their own laws on voting and being able to make amendments accordingly (Advantages and Disadvantages of Electoral College). The Electoral College also helps avoid the chance of fraud occurring or national recounts (Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College). Even though the system has many advantages it also has many disadvantages as
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.
In the Electoral College, each state gets a number of electors based on its representation in Congress. The Electoral College is the best method for electing a president for the country right now. The first reason the Electoral College is best, is that it ensures that all parts of the country are involved in the
The United States of America has a rich history filled with success, failure, courage, and drive. Millions have come seeking the “American Dream” and to live in the land of the free. The past is what has shaped this nation’s present and future. Yet, as time drifts, the world around us changes. What was once deemed acceptable can now seem outdated in today’s society.
Recently, especially after the 2000 elections where Al Gore won in the popular vote with 500,000 more votes but lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush, has the public began really arguing if the Electoral College should continue to be the major deciding factor in elections. “The Electoral College, the assemblage of state electors constitutionally charged with electing the president, also limits third-party growth. With the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, states award all their votes to the plurality winner within the state,(a term commonly referred as winner-take-all)” (AM GOV). Each state receives an electoral vote for every member they have in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Ever since the election involving Bush and Gore, the viability of the Electoral College has become a heatedly debated topic. The question is whether the Electoral College is still an effective system considering the conditions the United States faces today as opposed to the conditions that the Founding Fathers faced when they created it. For over one hundred and fifty years, the United States has used this system, and controversy has followed it ever since. It was created in an effort to protect the people and institution of America by putting the final vote of the presidency in the hands of a trusted and respected few. These few have the power to disregard the popular vote due to the fact that there is still no federal law demanding electors
America has come a long way since its establishment in 1776; two hundred and forty years has passed since then and the changes are quite notable. For instance, the fact that this country was built upon the backs of slaves who were stolen from their homeland, thankfully, laws that make slavery illegal exist now ("Congress Abolishes the African Slave Trade"). Same-sex marriage is legal, and anti-discrimination laws are trying to be put in place. All of these things are great for our country, but how long did it take to get to this point? 240 years?
In light of recent presidential elections, more and more of the public as turned their attention to the process in which the president is elected. Four times in history the president was elected due to votes in the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. (Wheeler, 2007) Most agree that the Electoral College is unfair because the candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote is not necessarily who the president will be on inauguration day. (Gringer, 2008)
Even after the signing of the 1965 voting rights act, which was intended to help African Americans and other racial minorities to have the constitutional right to vote, some laws still in the books throughout the United States discriminate against those who are not property owners. Of course, to be fair, this is exclusively certain election. But could this have a psychological effect on the non-property owners and depress turnout for other types of election in which virtually everyone above the age of eighteen could vote? In a district election, some officials are appointed, some are elected by property owners only and others are elected by everyone in the district. Roughly 40% of such district throughout the United States of America have
The Electoral College The Electoral College is the current process in which the United States decides who will win the presidential election. This method was adopted in 1787, taking the structure from the Roman Republic. Throughout the time we have used this method it has gone through two redesigns, the second of which resulted in the making of the Twelfth Amendment. In the following, I will be answering, how does the Electoral College operate, do I believe in it and should we change it to a popular vote?
“The Founding Fathers established The Electoral College as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.” according to archives.gov. The Electoral College was an option out of four ideas as stated in a peer-reviewed article by William C. Kimberling, a Deputy Director FEC Office of Election Administration. He stated that during this time, the colonies had a small population and people where very spread out, an idea of a patriarchal figure is very displeasing, those are a couple of problems the Convention had to go through... The Constitutional Convention had a couple of ideas like for example Congress choosing the president, state legislature chooses the president and the popular vote, but they ultimately chose the Electoral College.
