Electoral College Pros And Cons

The Demise of an Ancient Tradition In Federalist Paper 68 Hamilton stated “This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States”(Hamilton 1788). Hamilton’s reasoning behind the electoral college was to protect the people from an “evil”. In modern day circumstances, “evil” could be otherwise known as a dictatorship or tyranny. The greatest fear of the founders was a person holding too much power, as they had just emancipated themselves from a monarchy holding an unfit ruler, King George III in England. To prevent disaster, and protect the American people, our Founding Fathers created the electoral college.

After performing their civic duty and voting for a candidate, Americans feel disappointed if their candidate wins the popular vote while failing to be appointed to office(Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center). Disappointment equates to a feeling of hopelessness which, in turn, deters Americans from voting in future elections. If a candidate can win without the popular vote, then does their vote even matter?(Drew Desilver, “Pew Research Center) Discouragement has even been shown by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who stated “it’s time to move away from the electoral college and move to the popular election of our president”(Mahler and Eder, “The electoral college is Hated by so many. So why does it endure?”). Despite encouragement from high profile politicians, like former President Barack Obama, as well as other celebrities to encourage people to go out and vote, recent elections resulting in the electoral college overriding popular vote have people losing faith in the

Again, the separation causes citizens to question the purpose their vote makes on the election. This belittles their civic duty as they no longer respect their rights to vote, but feel it’s a mere distraction from the vote that will actually decide their next leader(Christopher Cantu, “U.S. Citizenship). This sets forth the motion that people don’t need to vote, thus diminishing the necessity for the right to vote. Through these events the American people are destroying the base at which their democracy was created