Essay On Electoral College

2000 Words8 Pages

The Electoral College should be eliminated because people do not have a clear choice in choosing the next President. This research paper will be discussing how the Electoral College affected the results of the Election of 1824 between the candidates Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and the political turmoil caused by the rumor of a “corrupt bargain”. The “corrupt bargain” occurred when Henry Clay, who had a spot in the House of Representatives, convinced the House of Representatives to elect John Quincy Adams. After John Quincy Adams was named the winner of the election, even though he had the least amount of electoral votes and popular votes, Henry Clay became his Secretary of State. After this, many Andrew Jackson supporters declared …show more content…

The popular vote, the people’s vote, is not really utilized, other than providing information to the electors in the Electoral College in order for them to decide for whom to cast their vote. Instead of a person voting for the national election, they are voting for the state election, which is not really going to affect the results of the national election because of low populations in some states. For example, North Dakota, with a population of 723,393 may not have much of a say versus California, with a population of 38.8 …show more content…

Currently, the electoral voters are the only ones with a direct vote in the election. In order for the election to be more reflective of the citizens’ wishes, the popular vote should become more significantly tied to the election. The Electoral College should not be the most prominent voting process, when the popular vote should be more important. The risk of untrustworthy electors increases, which causes the voter to feel that they are being cheated out of their votes, which may discourage them from voting in the future. There is also the high possibility in which neither candidates receive the majority of electoral votes required to win election, such as what occurred in the 1824 election, meaning the House of Representatives would have to decide who becomes