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Persuasive Essay On The Electoral College

1536 Words7 Pages

In light of the recent United States 2016 presidential election, both politicians and other public figures have urgently pressed for electoral reform to address the system which allowed an unlikely candidate to become the forty-fifth President of the United States. The inauguration of Donald J. Trump into presidential office has revived the electoral reform campaigns that ensued after the presidential election of 2000, when Republican candidate George W. Bush prevailed over Democrat candidate Al Gore. The election itself holds controversy due to the Florida vote recount fiasco and the Supreme Court ruling that followed, titled Bush v. Gore (2000). However, the controversy now differs; instead of pointing fingers at court rulings and discussing …show more content…

However, Schlesinger’s proposal mentioned earlier brings up an interesting point; why was the Electoral College included in the Constitution? It is important to note that the framers defended the Electoral College as necessary for the production of “extraordinary persons” as Presidents because they would be selected by “men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station” of the Presidency (Duquette et al., 2017). Additionally, the Electoral College prevents any national vote recounts from occurring, limiting them to specific jurisdictions where the disputes are held, not unlike the Florida election recount of 2000. In layman’s terms, the Electoral College was never intended to serve as an instrument for direct democracy, but rather protect against it for fear of the passions and prejudice of the majority. In the eyes of the framers, the function of government is to protect unalienable rights and promote justice — such things were not to be decided by majority rule. Thus, they designed a representative (or republican) democracy that enforces checks on majority rule, believing that this system is more efficient in deciding what justice requires. Essentially, they did not believe like we do today that the majority had any inherent right to rule or impose its will on the

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Good day. I am currently contacting you on the familiar issue of the unjust Electoral College. For instance, in 2000, the presidential election resulted in the presidency of George W. Bush; however, for the popular vote Al Gore had won. Al Gore lost the electoral votes 266 to Bush's 271 votes. The Electoral college is unreliable, contradicts the idea of democracy, and the idea is unfair to the citizens of the United States of America.

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Current day, it has little relevancy since it was originally included to address also issues that do not exist anymore, including not trusting the decision to be made by the American people. When originally founded, they wanted to ensure the President was decided by electors who had the knowledge to make what they felt was informed decisions. Now, many people feel as though too much power is given to the electoral votes, and that their vote does not mean as much as someone in a different state. As it stands, many feel that small states are largely misrepresented and given too much power since the votes are not divided equally among the population. In fact, if the Electoral College system was not in the Constitution, it would undoubtedly be removed due to it being unconstitutional, because using the electoral votes violates the principle of one-person, one-vote.

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