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Electoral College Voting

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Voting could be considered the most prestigious principle for the definition of democracy. The ability to vote for an official, governor, representative, or president has been a cherished one and has kept the powerful in check by giving the power to the people. In this modern generation, voting is not considered a privilege, it is a right, but there are devious loopholes in the fallible laws that have violated the rights of the majority of citizens. These loopholes have given the power of choice back to the hands of the powerful, and they do so through covert methods, some thought out and created by the founding fathers themselves. The fault rightfully shifts to the Electoral College. Once a proud entity during the early development of Colonial …show more content…

However, in 24 states electors can disregard the popular vote to cast their ballot for their own preference. "And that's happened over eighty times. In 2004, a Minnesota elector voted for "John Ewards", which was almost the name of John Kerry's running mate," (It’s Time To Abolish). Utilizing a system so unfair to elect a president is completely undemocratic, and past attempts towards abolishing the College have been politically impossible. There are ample reasons for why this system should be omitted, and their origins begin when the founding fathers made the structure of the American …show more content…

In 1856 the vote shifted to all white males. In 1870 the right to vote was given to all African Americans, but it did not last because of Southern State’s Jim Crow laws in 1889. These disenfranchisement laws were placed to once again limit the rights of all Black Americans. To severely prohibit the ability for blacks to vote, people did all they could to make it as difficult as possible for most free slaves and their next generation to simply stay out of the nominations entirely. These Southern states would remake franchise laws to enable a strict regulation on being eligible to vote. For instance, disenfranchisement Jim Crow laws were made to keep felons from obtaining representation for life, and then laws were passed to make minor crimes into felonies. Since most state officials knew that there existed a strong presence of racism and nativism in the law enforcement, they successfully created a devious scheme to imprison a large amount of Black Americans for a short period of time, and then release them while reaping most black males’ right to fair representation. “A lot of these laws [Jim Crow laws] are still on the books today. They were never repealed, and they're still stopping African-Americans from voting." It wasn’t until women gained the right to vote in the Women’s Suffrage Act of 1920 that people began to battle unfair voting regulations, and finally in 1965 everyone had

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In 1787 there was a constitutional convention which composed a new structure for our American government. (Study.com 2003) During the convention the delegates weren’t able to decide whether the people or congress should elect the president, thus creating the Electoral College. (Study.com 2003) The Electoral College is an arrangement between the majority vote of Congress and qualified citizens for the election of the president.

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President Andrew Jackson wanted all white men to have the right to vote. Back then only the wealthy men could vote, this discluding poor white farmers and lower class politicians, led to “ Universal White Male Suffrage” since most black men were still secluded. The oppression of non privileged white people during the 1800s was short yet the fight for black people to have proper equality is still going. In 1856 the right for all white men to vote was established, and in 1876 the 15th Amendment was passed stating “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or

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1015 Words | 5 Pages

Observably, the Jim Crow laws passed by southern states effectively disfranchised African-Americans from the late nineteenth century until well into the 20th century. In the ongoing of Reconstruction, after the Civil War, African Americans in the south briefly enjoyed voting privileges because they felt nearly equal to whites. However, around 1890, legally sanctioned disfranchisement occurred abruptly. For example, during the years’ right after the Civil War, African Americans made up as much as forty-four percent of the registered electorate in Louisiana, but by 1920, they constituted only 1 percent of the electorate. In Mississippi, almost seventy percent of eligible African Americans were registered to vote in 1867 and after 1890, less than six percent were eligible to vote.

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1338 Words | 6 Pages

The United States is a government republic, with chose authorities at the elected (national), state and neighborhood levels. On a national level, the head of express, the President, is chosen in a roundabout way by the general population of each state, through an Electoral College. Today, the balloters essentially dependably vote with the well-known vote of their state. All individuals from the government council, the Congress, are straightforwardly chosen by the general population of each state. There are many chosen workplaces at the state level, each state having no less than an elective Governor and council.

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813 Words | 4 Pages

Madison noted that the North-South divide presented an obstacle of a ‘serious nature’ to direct democracy. He concluded that the use of electors that gave each state a set number of votes ‘seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.’ Now slavery is gone, yet the electoral college remains. ( Turley 1) Since there isn’t slavery anymore and everyone has equal voting rights there are no reasons for keeping electoral college. Therefore, the electoral college should be removed from our presidential

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563 Words | 3 Pages

The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

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904 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College system assures balanced power between the states, puts the independent parties under control, grants balanced voting, and supports the major political parties. The Electoral College has proven itself to be very sufficient in determining the president and the vice president of the United States. Since this system has been successful since our Founding Fathers created it, there should be no reason as to why we should get rid of the Electoral

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428 Words | 2 Pages

Since the inception of our constitution in 1787, there has only been 4 elections where the Electoral College has allowed the future president-elect candidate to win the election, despite losing the popular vote. 4/57 elections is probably something that political scientists don’t lose sleep over, but it is a topic that is worth mentioning and discussing, especially after the controversial presidential election in 2000. From my point of view, I believe that the method we use in selecting our presidents is flawed and ineffective for a couple of reasons. First, the Electoral College has far fewer votes than the American people, yet their vote has a lot more meaning. With 538 delegates representing the Electoral College, it is unfair and inequitable to the millions of people who devote their time and energy to stand in long

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1026 Words | 5 Pages

In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it

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1104 Words | 5 Pages

The United States prides itself on being a democratic nation that serves its citizens, yet its voting system throws democracy away in favor of efficiency. Even on the state level, not all states are represented equally when electoral votes are distributed. Finally, the Electoral College discourages third-party candidates from running, giving too much power to the two political parties of the nation and robbing the nation’s citizens from potential leaders who could change the country for the better if they could win the

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1821 Words | 8 Pages

Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.

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1706 Words | 7 Pages

Voting Rights Timeline, 2004)), thus making the invention of an electoral college to give the southern voters a chance and an equal vote to that of the northern voters. This clever and innovative way of voting introduced by Madison provides a good insight as to how we could make the entire country have a fair chance against populations of higher amounts of voters, or to voters with a specific bias, but in large populations. The electoral college works as shown: Americans vote for presidential electors, these electors elect the president of the United States. The constitution assigns each state a number of the five hundred thirty eight electors that are equal to the total of the Senate and House of Representatives delegations (Electoral College, 2016). Through this system, we can closely evaluate the real vote of Americans

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550 Words | 3 Pages

t 's said we all have one vote no matter how rich, poor, tall, short, smart, or uninformed, we get one vote and elections are the great equalizer as everybody is reduced to "one vote." (Wrong) When it comes to the US presidential elections, some voters have more influence than others. When we vote, we aren’t voting for the President. We are voting to encourage our state’s Electoral College members to vote a certain way. And if the past and current elections hold, it looks like one candidate will win the electoral vote while another wins the popular vote as we saw in the 2017 election.

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975 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College is a longstanding organization in place in the United States of America that was originally established by the Founding Fathers in create equality in presidential elections has become a topic of harsh criticism and controversy over the years. The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers of the United States at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in order ensure there was representation of the people while keeping the best interests of the nation in mind (“What is the Electoral College?”). At the time of the writing of the Constitution, there were two main ideas on how to elect a president. The first was that there should be a simple vote of all eligible people and who ever gets the most votes becomes

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975 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College is the process to which the United States elects the President, and the Vice President. The founders of the Constitution came up with this process. This was done to give additional power to the small states, and it was done to satisfy them. It works by the citizens of the United States electing representatives called electors. Each state is given the same amount of electors, as they are members of congress.

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