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Essay On Electoral College Vote

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Selecting a President for the United States Of America primarily utilizes the Electoral College Vote system. This manner in selecting a President requires these several standards as stated by Congressional Digest’s as *to reconcile and balance differing State and Federal interests ; *give the State legislatures the authority to provide their preferred means of choosing the electors, which also included the use of popular vote, using the legislature itself, or by using any other method; * by providing the “constant two” “senatorial” or at-large electors, affording the “smaller”states such as Fiji, Micronesia,and Palau some additional leverage, so that the election process would not be totally dominated by the “bigger” more populated states;*preserve …show more content…

The electors were to be chosen by the states “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct” (Article II, Section 1). Qualifications for the office were broad: the only persons prohibited from serving as electors are senators, representatives, and persons “holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States.” However this original system did need some refinement as it proved to be unworkable. Under this system, each elector would cast two votes for two different candidates for the office of President, but no votes were casted for Vice President. Instead the candidate who received the most electoral votes was elected, provided that he receives a number of votes equal to a majority of the whole number of electors rather than the majority of the electoral votes. Nobody actually ran for Vice President instead the runner- up in the presidential contest was elected to the second office. Notwithstanding the founders’ efforts, the Electoral College system does not function exactly as they intended, however, as with so many constitutional provisions, the document prescribed only the system’s basic elements, leaving ample room for development. As the republic evolved, so did the Electoral College system, and, by the late nineteenth century, the following range of constitutional, Federal, and State legal and political elements of the contemporary system were in

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The Electoral College has been our presidential election procedure since 1787. This system was created to indirectly choose the president in a way that fits the desire of the citizens, which also prevents uninformed voters from deciding upon the country’s leader. Each state receives one electoral vote for each member of Congress, which totals up to 538 electors.

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The President and Vice President are not elected directly by the voters. Instead, they are elected by "electors" who are chosen by popular vote on a state-by-state basis. The Electoral college is actually a process, not a place. Our founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between the popular vote of citizens and the Congress. Reconstruction(1865-1877)- www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_reconstruct.html

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Since 1800 there have been over 700 proposals to either revise or eliminate the electoral college. The electoral college was added to the Constitution in 1787 to guarantee the best candidate was elected. The electoral college consists of electors who officially cast their votes for President. The number of electors for each state is determined by the number of congress members each state has. While there are no qualifications to become an elector, electors must follow the people's directive.

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When you go and vote for president, do you think your vote goes toward the decision of who becomes president? If you do, think again because the system is not as clear cut as it seems. In 1787 during the Constitutional Convention, the delegates discussed a way to vote for president without having the passions of the people and average voters getting in the way. The Electoral College has 538 members total which are divided among states, with each state receiving the amount of electoral votes that corresponds with their population. The outdated system known as the Electoral College, should officially be abolished from the process of the presidential election in the United States.

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This problem was corrected by the 12th amendment, ratified in 1804. Now today the winner takes all system in effect in 48 states makes it possible for candidates to win at least 270 electoral votes without winning a majority of the popular vote. Today a candidate who carries the 10 largest states wins 256 electoral votes. But the Electoral College can also help small states. Most people want to abolish the Electoral College.

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The Electoral College is established in Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, it states that “Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons. The person having the highest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole numbers of electors appointed”(Hardaway 79). The twelfth amendment modifies this procedure to require balloting for president and vice president be done separately. Although there were sixty-nine electors who participated in the first election, we now have a total of five hundred and thirty-eight. To win the presidency, a candidate must receive two hundred and seventy votes.

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For a presidential candidate to win in the College, the candidate must obtain 270 votes. According to Losco and Baker, the Framers devised the Electoral college stop political infighting that might ensue, but believed that it would be unimportant in presidential races. Under the original rules of the College, the winner in the College became president and the second place candidate became vice president. In the election of 1796, this resulted in a president from one party and a vice president from another party.

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The Electoral College’s creation dates all the way back to 1877 when the Founding Fathers (George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson) decided this was how the country should pick their president. What they agreed on was

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Several years after the United States came to be, the Constitutional Convention met to determine how the new nation should govern itself. The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. The delegates believed that the president’s power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nation’s principle of representative democracy, while others

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The Framers of the United States Constitution incorporated a number of significant features. Examples of significant features include the Electoral College, and the Roles of the President. Both of these features were incorporated into the United States Constitution and still have an importance today. The Electoral College is a feature incorporated within the U.S. Constitution and it’s mentioned in Article II of the Constitution. The electoral college consists of 538 electors but only 270 electoral votes are needed to become President.

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The electoral college this is the process the country has been using since 1804 when the 12th amendment was passed. This process was used so that the country would not have to use the popular vote because it gave an unfair advantage to the bigger more populated states. For a candidate to become President of the United States, he or she must be able to attain 270 electoral votes to become president-elect. Currently there are 538 members of the electoral college.(U.S. Electoral College). These people will gather together in their states to vote for the next president of the United States.

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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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The Electoral College system the founding fathers devised helps to balance out the power of the large, populous states. This system forces candidates to campaign in all states since they all carry some sway in the elections (“Understanding the Presidential Election”). However, other issues present themselves as well, like states with large independent voters that can be swayed and the issue that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election. The first issue is that states that are equally divided between democrats and republicans and hold a large number of electoral votes like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered swing states. (“Understanding the Presidential Election”)

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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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