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Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

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The Electoral College has been a cornerstone of the American presidential election process since the founding of the nation. Designed as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election by popular vote, it has faced increasing scrutiny and calls for abolition in contemporary times. This essay examines the arguments both for and against abolishing the Electoral College, weighing the democratic principles of fairness and representation against the practical implications of its continued existence. One of the primary arguments in favor of abolishing the Electoral College is its potential to undermine the principle of one person, one vote. Critics argue that the winner-takes-all allocation of electoral votes in most states can lead to …show more content…

This can create an uneven electoral landscape where the concerns of certain demographics or regions are overlooked in favor of those deemed crucial to winning the electoral vote majority. The historical origins of the Electoral College are also contentious, rooted in compromises that included the three-fifths compromise and were intended to protect the interests of slave states (Hamilton, 2020). Critics argue that these origins underscore its undemocratic nature and perpetuate inequalities that have persisted in American political institutions. Defenders of the Electoral College argue that it serves as a vital safeguard of federalism and the rights of smaller states within the union. By requiring presidential candidates to win electoral votes from a variety of states, regardless of population density, the system ensures that candidates must build broad-based coalitions of support across diverse geographic and demographic landscapes (Edwards,

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The existence of the Electoral College has remained a source of debate for the population of the United States for centuries. Despite the evident discontent surrounding it, the United States is largely unaware of the disconnect between citizens’ voices and the Presidency. It can be said that popular sovereignty, no matter how pleasant a concept, has become little more than an illusion the people cling to. In short, the Electoral College is an institution that must be abolished, because it violates political equality, is unfair to third party candidates, and is not an accurate representation of the people’s votes.

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Watching this year’s election was shocking. Against all predictions, against every analysis, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States. But were those predictions really off? As the LA Times put it,” Hillary Clinton got roughly the same number of votes that President Obama received four years ago en route to his reelection, but she nonetheless lost the presidency to Donald Trump, who came in at least 2.8 million votes behind her.” This is, of course, because of the electoral college.

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Ever since the election involving Bush and Gore, the viability of the Electoral College has become a heatedly debated topic. The question is whether the Electoral College is still an effective system considering the conditions the United States faces today as opposed to the conditions that the Founding Fathers faced when they created it. For over one hundred and fifty years, the United States has used this system, and controversy has followed it ever since. It was created in an effort to protect the people and institution of America by putting the final vote of the presidency in the hands of a trusted and respected few. These few have the power to disregard the popular vote due to the fact that there is still no federal law demanding electors

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The first words in the Constitution are “We the people”, yet the Electoral College takes away power from the people to directly elect a President. To better understand the Electoral College, we will delve into the basics of the Electoral College and presidential elections, the pros and cons of the Electoral College in modern times, and a specific instance in which the Electoral College majorly affected the outcome of an election. The government should abolish the Electoral College, so United States citizens can directly elect whom they feel should head the Executive Branch. To begin, the Electoral College is a process, not an educational institution.

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A debate that has existed in American politics for centuries has flared up again. The debate in question is whether we should keep our Electoral College for the purpose of electing our President or abolish it and elect our Presidents through a popular vote. Those who seek to abolish the Electoral College cite instances -recent and past- in which Presidential Candidates have won the popular vote yet lost the majority of the Electoral College. They also argue that the undemocratic philosophy behind the Electoral College, the thought that the American people aren’t competent enough to choose their own Commander in Chief, is an outdated remnant of a backwards past that has no place in modern society and law. Those who seek to preserve the Electoral

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Picture a system where your vote truly matters, every vote counts for something, and every citizen's voice is heard. This reality could be achieved by abolishing the outdated, misrepresentative, Electoral College. To understand why it should be abolished, first, we must look at the reasoning behind its creation. The founders of the Electoral College aimed to create a system where both small and large states’ interests were taken into account and voting power was not based on state size. Therefore, the Electoral College was designed as a compromise to give each state a certain number of votes based on their population size.

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The abolishment of the Electoral College has been, and will continue to be, a subject that has been debated and argued upon for many years. This question becomes apparent after the countless arguments that the Electoral College is nothing but an unnecessary hassle that undermines our democratic values. Although that might be the primary argument, the big picture involves much more. These include, first, the possibility that this system is antiquated and the idea that the Electoral College was something that the founding fathers agreed upon because, “they were tired, impatient, and frustrated” so, “they cobbled together this plan because they couldn’t agree on anything else” (Roos). Questions like “Does the majority really decide?”

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Does your vote really matter? In our complicated election, will your vote matter ever really matter. The Electoral College should be abolished, for its lack of representation of America’s votes. In our most recent election, the electoral college played a huge part in deciding who would be the leader of our country. Though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, due to the electoral college, what the majority of the people in our country did not matter and Donald Trump won through electoral votes.

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The Electoral College Needs to be Abolished Every four years, millions of Americans rush to the polls to vote for the next President of the United States of America. What many Americans voting today may not know is that they are participating in an unfair system; this system is taking power from a majority of Americans and placing an emphasis on the few. The best solution to this problem is the simplest one, abolish the Electoral College. The Electoral College should be abolished because of over-representation of small states. “The Electoral College violates political equality”.

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If America has been on the basis of “we the people” from when the preamble was written in the Constitution, how has it become just to use a political system that denies citizens their right to a vote that actually matters? This system is the electoral college. It is a method of indirect popular election of the President of the United States. That word “indirect” is a prime notion of why the electoral college has been the subject of persistent criticism and frequent proposals for reform. It has been seen in great times when the electoral college made an unjust decision in electing the president when their decision diverged from the nation's popular vote.

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If the U.S. got rid of the Electoral college, it could cause even more problems than the ones people had with it. How would we elect a president? how would we vote for one otherwise? Without the system that kept elections fair, the U.S. would have more problems than they have with it now. If the U.S. were to abolish the Electoral college and replace it with a different system or by popular vote, “To do so would require amendments to the U.S. Constitution” (‘NCSL.”

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An Undated Practice: The Electoral College Founded at a time of great uncertainty, in a struggle between state and federal power, the electoral college was created as a means to compromise. Intricate and complex, this system is discriminatory to each individual of the population; most Americans are oblivious to this fact. In addition, candidates may win their election without winning the popular vote. After the votes have been cast, loyal electors may betray the people whom they represent and select the unpopular candidate.

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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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Primarily, the Electoral College promotes a racial bias and gives more electoral weight to the Southern Republican states. Moreover, the popular vote system would enable third-party candidates to have a higher probability of becoming the president. However, several misguided Americans believe that the popular vote would not protect small states, but small states actually become ignored during presidential campaigns. Hence, the federal government’s elimination of the Electoral College would strengthen the representative government and the chances of third-party candidates, giving states and American citizens the power to choose their president as they

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The 2000 presidential elections demonstrated an incredible loophole in the race for the Presidency, found in the Electoral College. In the results of the elections, George W. Bush had lost the popular vote 545,000 votes, but won the Presidency by swinging a lead of 5 votes in the Electoral College. This discrepancy outraged citizens and politicians across the United States. This is not the only instance of the majority candidate not winning the race, for it has happened three times throughout American history (Longley, Pierce 28-29). The Electoral College poses the challenge of evaluating a process that is both highly disputed in how legislators believe it should be run and so incredibly vital to the function of the United States Government.

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