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Electoral College Pros And Cons

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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 Electoral College consists of 538 delegates, and it takes a total of 270 delegates to win the presidential election. Each state gets their votes from both their senators and their members of the house of representatives. This method is …show more content…

This still gives the bigger states a voice, but in doing so they also give smaller states a chance to be able to express their voice as well. For example, an urban place like New York will have different needs than any fly over states which are the more rural areas in the United States. A recent event that used this was the 2016 election. Where Clinton won the popular vote, but Trump won the election by winning the electoral vote. This happened because Hillary won fewer states, but the states she did win had a larger population. While Trump won the majority of rural states that have different needs than the larger states. Many people argued that this was unfair however, under this system this is an ongoing theme. The election between George Bush and Al Gore resulted in the same …show more content…

I believe we should. I understand why we needed the Electoral College in the past, because our population was small and the majority of people lived on farm land and it was an easy way to elect the president, but in today’s world this is not the case. In today’s world we have advance technology and the ability to get everyone's vote. Even in the elections today we tally up all of the votes. Most people who do not believe that we should have a majority vote use the expression that larger population states would hold too much power. However, it is clear that this is how it should be. If more people want someone in office, then they should get elected. I think it is idiotic that the person who does not get the majority of votes can still win. The whole point of our government is that we give the common person a voice, and with the electoral college it can muffle their voice. Now, do I think the Electoral College is effective? Yes I do. I am not trying to take anything away from the current system we use, but with that being said the popular vote will cause less controversy and at the same time it will put the right person in office. Also, “The Electoral College gives too much power to "swing states" and allows the presidential election to be decided by a handful of states”(The Electoral College: Top 3 Pros and Cons, 2017) This means states with a low population can impact the election

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