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Electoral College Pros And Cons

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Though unlikely to be at the forefront of any 2016 presidential platforms, the Electoral College is a widely contested issue among partisans, many of who believe that a better method exists for selecting the President of the United States. This anti-Electoral College sentiment is also present among Americans nationwide, Republicans and Democrats alike. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 61% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats would vote to do away with the Electoral College. In today’s contentious political atmosphere, in which Republicans and Democrats are constantly at odds with one another, any level of agreement between the parties clearly indicates that a change needs to be made. Changes are already starting to occur at the state level, …show more content…

This often leads to the winner of the popular vote receiving a disproportionate number of electoral votes relative to that candidate’s national popular vote share. For example, in 2012, Barack Obama won 332 of the 538 electoral votes, approximately 61.7% of the electoral votes, while only winning 51.06% of the popular vote. This leads candidates to search for states where a small victory in the popular vote will allow them to gain a large number of electoral votes. If we consider economic theory to be a relevant comparison when analyzing elections, winning electoral votes is a zero-sum game, that is, for a candidate to win a state’s electoral votes it must come directly at the expense of the other candidate who is then prevented from winning those same votes. As a result, candidates target these competitive states and flood them with advertisements and campaign stops in an effort to not only win the electoral votes for himself, but also to prevent his opponent from winning said votes. This scenario is not unique to the Electoral College, and is a relevant factor all the way down to the level of individual selection, since voting for a particular candidate automatically excludes the other candidate from receiving a vote from that same individual. However, this exclusion becomes much more critical at the point at which a candidate can be excluded from receiving dozens of electoral votes rather than just a collection of individual

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