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Essay On Electoral College

1345 Words6 Pages

There are many problems with the way that the presidential election works in America. Because of the way that the Electoral College in set up, there is the possibility that the person that loses the popular vote may win the electoral vote, meaning that the person who becomes president may not be the person that majority of the people of the United States wanted to become president, which is what happened in the 2000 election between Bush and Gore. This isn’t even the only case, as both Andrew Jackson in 1824 and Samuel Tilden in 1876 won the popular vote but didn’t become president. The Electoral College also creates an imbalance of power with the electoral votes a state may get based on its population. For example, a vote from Wyoming is …show more content…

Currently, there are 21 states that have no law binding their elector to vote for the candidate that the state’s popular vote chooses, however, even in the 29 states that have laws enforcing the electors to vote for their states popular vote, the fine for not doing so is usually $1,000 and over the years, a number of electors have gone against their states popular vote. During the founding the United States, the Electoral College was actually established for the purpose of preventing the public from making uneducated decisions. The founders feared that the uneducated public, at the time, would not make intelligent decisions when deciding which candidate to choose for, however, this was not designed for the modern day public and leaving the decision of voting to the electors is counter-productive. Since the founding of the Electoral College to the 2008 election, 157 electors have not voted for whom they were supposed to. The Electoral College also enforces the two-party system, because of the winner-takes-all system, which makes it so that smaller third parties stand no chance of winning any electoral votes. People will also be discouraged from voting for a third party, feeling that a vote for a third party is “wasted” and would rather support “the lesser of two evils,” by voting for one of the two parties they would rather win, even if that party isn’t exactly the party they want to

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The creation of the Electoral College was the result of one of the many compromises of our Founding Fathers. The intentions of such a system were developed to create fairness for smaller states and to prevent an unsuitable candidate from acquiring the office. Although it has been rare, the possibility that the Electoral College and not the popular vote would decide a presidential election was intended in its creation. The pros and cons of such a system have changed over time and are heavily debated in our current circumstances. Due to advancements in technology not envisioned by the founders, alternatives have been suggested to resolve the conflicts of what some feel is an outdated system.

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1305 Words | 6 Pages

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