ipl-logo

Electoral College Pros And Cons

427 Words2 Pages

I must preface this discussion with the fact that I am anything but, pro Electoral College. Nonetheless, the Electoral College is a method of voting within our democracy, which each state is allocated a certain amount of “electors” who are sworn to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their respective state. However, there are two exceptions to this rule, the states of Nebraska and Maine, which bifurcate their respective electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote. The quantity of electoral votes in any given state is grounded in the state’s congressional representation. Respectively, each state is afforded two votes for every Senator with an added vote for every member of the House of Representatives, which is in-turn grounded in volume of the state population. When all the votes are tallied in a General Election for the Presidency of the United States, the total number of electoral votes must meet or exceed 270 in order to declare a candidate the winner. (Fine & Levin-Waldman, 2016) …show more content…

The Electoral College also appears to preserve Federalism. The biggest downfall of the Electoral College is the “winner-takes-all” imperative. This creates candidates that are more likely to only focus on the “swing states” due to the subsequent majority republican or democrat states, irrespective of popular votes. When considering the reform of the Electoral College system, Madonna (2005) states, “These proposals-the automatic, proportional, district, and national bonus plans-have their advantages, and each partially mitigates some of the shortcoming of the current

Show More
Related
511 Words | 3 Pages

In this plan, the people are able to vote for who they want as president yet the candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win. These electoral votes are what truly decides the next president. The electors of a state cast their vote for the

Read More
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
239 Words | 1 Pages

The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors. Every four years the cast votes decide on who will be the President and Vice President of the United States next. The votes are based off the polls from the American people who are registered to vote and who they think should be the next President and Vice President. However, the candidate will need a simple majority 270 to win. So, when a voter casts a vote the candidate is casting a vote for the Presidential Electors who was selected by candidate’s party.

Read More
518 Words | 3 Pages

Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. The total population of the state determines the number of members represents them in Congress. The Presidential election is considered a “take all” election. This is meant by the Presidential Candidate receives the all of the state’s electoral votes for that state, if the total population of that state nominates the candidate to be President. Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes.

Read More
1628 Words | 7 Pages

The Electoral College system, written in the U.S. Constitution, holds each state entitled to some of its electors according to its representation in Congress. According to Fortier, the number of electors is similar to that of the congressional representation for the states (Fortier, p. 6). On the day of the election, the voters do not directly vote for the national presidential candidates but rather vote for an elector pledged to a particular candidate. Suppose the person who is a major popular vote in a state wins. In that case, all of that state's electoral votes are planned to go to the EM, except Maine and Nebraska, where the electors are allocated proportionately.

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

The Electoral College has a total of 538 electoral votes. Which means in the House there are 435 votes, 100 in the Senate, and not forgetting the three electoral votes Washington D.C. receives.   This mean that the number of electors could change according to how the population changes in number, by each decade according to the census.  Also for a voter to win they need to have 270 or more votes, to receive a majority rule.

Read More
273 Words | 2 Pages

The electoral college is a way for selected individual’s to be chosen from each state to vote for the two-presidential candidate’s that have won popular vote for that state. Each state gets two votes for each senator and an additional vote for each member of the House of Representatives, which is based on state population. When votes are accumulated the candidate must get at least 270 votes from the Electoral College system. ( Levin- Waldman, 2012) There are some pros which are the electoral college system is efficient way to represent the country’s overall votes, favors states with smaller populations, this avoids them from having to recount the nations popular vote.

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

There are many advantages to having an Electoral College. One of the few reasons it was established in the first place was to allow states

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

One of the United States’ fundamental beliefs is the idea that fair taxation with equal representation. Author of, “5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Electoral College”, Louise Gaille, elaborates, “In national representation, each state and population district receives equal representation, in either the house or the senate, and that allows individual voters to still have a say in what happens” (Gaille). The Electoral College was built on compromises the Founding Fathers made to ensure the equal ability for everyone to impact the decisions made in the country. Without national representation, states with smaller populations won’t have their votes as considered as the votes from larger states. For example, although Wyoming makes up about .18% of the population, they still control .56% of all electoral votes.

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

It has thus organised a political system which allows States to be quite independent, having many rights and powers, including the making of their own Constitution... The Federal system impacts the way American citizens vote ; the Electoral College results in it. However, according to some people, the Electoral College is an obstacle to freedom of choice and liberty of expression for the electors. Then, in what extend the Electoral College could act as a brake on democracy? On the one hand, the pros Electoral College, as William Kimberling (Deputy Director FEC office of Election Administration), point to that « important political powers are reserved to States » since they are represented « according the size of their population ».

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

The Electoral College Many people do not realize that when they are voting for their presidential choice, they are really just voting for the Electoral College vote. The person who is nominated to hold the position for the Electoral College then votes for the presidential candidate. The Electoral College was put into place by the founding fathers 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 (Archives). The Electoral College is 538 electors and the President needs at least 270 electoral votes to win the election.

Read More
1700 Words | 7 Pages

Maansi Dasari Mr. Morris AP English 3 12 January 2017 The Electoral College: The last remnant of slavery Amidst the chaos of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, emerges a cacophony of voices screaming for Electoral College reform. Many are angered by the results, others are confused: how can one candidate receive nearly three million more votes than the other and still lose the election? The Electoral College has been the United States’ method for electing a president since the Constitution was ratified, and this is far from the first time that it has been criticized.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

Along with keeping balance between the states, the Electoral College also helps keep independent parties under

Read More
715 Words | 3 Pages

270: The number of electoral votes one must obtain to become the president of the United States. America chose its leaders that way since September 17, 1787; the signing of the Constitution. This process, called the Electoral College was designed by the Founding Fathers to elect the most powerful man in the world. On election night, electors from each state pledge their vote for a candidate based on popular vote of the individual state.

Read More
1026 Words | 5 Pages

In Document G, show us a Chart in which depicts that the candidate who wins the popular vote never wins the electoral vote. So, the candidate who receives more votes from the public never wins the presidency. So, why even campaign if the goal is to win less votes than your opponent so you don’t win the popular vote but win the presidency? In Document A, it shows us that any candidate could win the 270 votes by winning only eleven states. These eleven states are; California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), Illinois (29), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), and New Jersey (14).

Read More

More about Electoral College Pros And Cons

Open Document