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Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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Do We Need the Electoral College? Following the 2016 election many individuals we shocked to find Donald Trump had won the Presidency while not having the popular vote. They were unaware of how the electoral college works and how the president is actually elected through the electoral college rather than the popular vote. But, before we find out if we need the electoral college, we must look into why it was created, and look at the pros and cons of the electoral college as well as the pros and cons of the proposed system to replace it. History During colonial days, Founding Fathers were debating how the country should be represented in the federal government. On one side was the Virginia plan written by James Madison, he thought that states …show more content…

For the example of California, it would be 55 members in the House plus the two members in the Senate to equal 57 electoral votes. 48 states are a winner take all with their electoral votes, meaning the candidate with the majority of votes in that state gets all of the electoral votes. The remaining two states, Nebraska and Maine divide their votes for the proportion that they win. During presidential elections, each state has its election and the people vote for who they want to be president, but they do not vote directly for the president. They electors see how the people vote and pledge to vote along with the majority, although it is very rare sometimes they do not vote along with the majority. they are called a faithless elector. There is a total of 538 electoral votes, and to win the presidency the presidential candidate needs the majority or 270 votes to win. If the presidential candidate does not secure the majority, the House of Representatives will then vote on who becomes

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The Electoral College condenses the population’s vote for the President of the United States into 538 electoral votes. After all the votes are tallied,

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The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors. Every four years the cast votes decide on who will be the President and Vice President of the United States next. The votes are based off the polls from the American people who are registered to vote and who they think should be the next President and Vice President. However, the candidate will need a simple majority 270 to win. So, when a voter casts a vote the candidate is casting a vote for the Presidential Electors who was selected by candidate’s party.

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816 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College is the intuition that formally elects the president. Each state has a certain amount of electors assigned to it, that number is based on how many representative that states as in congress. It is made up of 538 members which is the sum of the 435representative, 100 senators, and 3 electors given to the District of Columbia. In order to win the election a presidential candidate needs to receive a majority of the votes (270). The topic of whether the Electoral College is still a necessary part of today’s election process is highly controversial.

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However, voters do not vote for a specific elector, they just vote which party they are affiliated with. The popular vote is just as important as the Electoral College vote, but it does not determine the outcome. Fundamentally, the popular vote is just to see how many voters favor which presidential candidate the most. “Democratic and Republican state parties nominate their own slates of electors-some as early as the spring and others as late as October. In many states, elector candidates are picked at congressional district and state conventions, when local activists also pick their delegates to the national convention.”

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These electors are here to represent the United States population of approximately 309,000,000 people. This would mean 1 electoral vote represents 574,000 people (Video 2). Every state must have at least 3 votes in the current system and the District of Columbia gets to vote even when it is not a state while territories like Puerto Rico do not get to vote even when people living there are US citizens. This

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The Electoral College is “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” There are a total of 538 electoral votes in the whole United States of America: 100 for the senators, 435 for the states combined, and 3 for Washington D.C. Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. There are many flaws for this system. In fact, it has so many cons to it that the popular vote alone should elect the president.

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The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton’s 227, thus winning the presidential election. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer

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225 Words | 1 Pages

Electoral College is a group of people that contains of 538 electors who nominate the body of House of Representatives that are two mains of leaders that took place, the President and Vice-President. They are chosen who cast votes from each state to decide the number of which President and Vice-President that can run the government in the United States. The polls always held on Tuesday, which is the day that voters who are only known as citizens; however, immigrants are not allowed to vote. They will choose which candidate receives their state 's electors, the people of each state vote for the electors who votes on the people 's behalf. The candidate who receives 270, a majority of electoral votes, wins the Presidency that equals to

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In the question of whether the Electoral College was or still is a good idea, I would have to say no. Why the Electoral College was made goes back to the Founding Fathers of America, who had been arguing for months on whether Congress or the majority vote should pick the next president. Their compromise led to the Electoral College. However, to me, it seems like a band-aid to an actual solution because they couldn't agree on anything else.

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Madison noted that the North-South divide presented an obstacle of a ‘serious nature’ to direct democracy. He concluded that the use of electors that gave each state a set number of votes ‘seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.’ Now slavery is gone, yet the electoral college remains. ( Turley 1) Since there isn’t slavery anymore and everyone has equal voting rights there are no reasons for keeping electoral college. Therefore, the electoral college should be removed from our presidential

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The Electoral College should be abolished because of the occasions where presidents have won without popular vote, the number of electoral votes each state gets, today people are more educated and their vote should be counted one person, one vote. There have been four occasions where the president elected did not win the majority vote because of the Electoral College. One of the four elections was in 1824 when John Quincy Adams was elected president even though he did not receive the majority vote. He received 84 electoral votes, Henry Clay received 37, Andrew Jackson received 99 and William Crawford received 41. None of the four candidates received 51% if electoral college so the vote went to the House of Representatives.

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The Electoral College consists of 538 delegates, and it takes a total of 270 delegates to win the presidential election. Each state gets their votes from both their senators and their members of the house of representatives. This method is

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Consisting of 538 electors, a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect a President (NARA). Representation in the college is directly proportionate to the number of Congressional members your state has, one for each Senator and Representative. When a citizen casts

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The electoral college has always successfully chosen a president and benefited small states. However, in the more recent years there has been much debate as to whether or not this system works for our country. There have been five times when the winner of the popular vote loses the election leaving citizens wondering

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Each elector must cast one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. In order to win the electoral college, and be nominated as President of the United States, the candidate must gain 270 of the 538 electoral votes. In an instance where no candidate receives the 270 votes needed, the House of Representatives

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