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Presidential election electoral college effect essay
Presidential election electoral college effect essay
Merits of electoral college
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Did you know that in two out of the last five U.S. presidential elections, the candidate who won the popular vote did not win the presidency? Now, to explore the question, Should We Abolish the Electoral College? The very system that defies the will of the majority. This question is often being thought about as the Electoral College has what some may argue advantages and perks, but it does have its downsides and what some may argue flaws. We will be exploring on why the current Electoral College should be left alone, as it does not allow the majority to always get their way, it ensures that all parts of a country is involved in the election and that candidates will serve the entire country, and lastly, the Electoral College creates a compromise between popular vote and congressional choice.
This shows that many voters feel that it is time for a change in the United State’s voting system. The Electoral College only reflects the candidate that wins the most votes per state (Kimberling). With a direct popular vote, it will reflect each voter’s opinion. The article, “Origins of the Electoral College, this states that, "the Electoral College was designed by men who did not want the election of the president to be left to the people…” (Holcombe).
If the Electoral College did not exist, the presidential candidates would feel more obligated to visit every state, or at least more than they do now. However, I do think the Electoral College does a respectable job at representing minority states, so I don’t think it should be completely abolished. Instead, it needs to be
This paper explores and discusses how the president of the United States is elected, but mainly analyzes the Electoral College and demonstrates possible positive and negative aspects of the voting system here in our country. The Electoral College is a difficult and intricate voting system that is hard to fully analyze in a pro-and-con fashion. Unless it is understood in its entirety and the past conflicts that brought about its existence to provide a viable method for electing the leader of the fledgling nation. The Electoral College was created during the original time of the 13 new states that composed the young United States of America. The nation was barely getting on its feet and presented various concepts and propositions for presidential elections prior to reaching the system we know today (Webster, 2016).
The US’s Electoral College has always been a controversial topic. When it was written into the Constitution, it was meant as a compromise between the small and large states, and between Congress and the states (M. West). Since then, the Electoral College system has been how the United States elected its presidents. However, it continues to face criticism and many want the system to change, favoring systems such as a national popular vote instead (National Conference of State Legislatures). Despite how the US’s Electoral College effectively balances power between the states and the federal government, it is still a deeply flawed voting system due to it being based on unrealistic expectations and outdated ideals that should be changed to reflect
After performing their civic duty and voting for a candidate, Americans feel disappointed if their candidate wins the popular vote while failing to be appointed to office(Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center). Disappointment equates to a feeling of hopelessness which, in turn, deters Americans from voting in future elections. If a candidate can win without the popular vote, then does their vote even matter?(Drew Desilver, “Pew Research Center) Discouragement has even been shown by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who stated “it’s time to move away from the electoral college and move to the popular election of our president”(Mahler and Eder, “The electoral college is Hated by so many. So why does it endure?”).
“Pros and cons of the Electoral College it said this about what supporters think about the electoral college “Naturally, supporters of keeping the current system have their own statements. They claim that the Electoral College forces candidates to focus on states rather than simply cities with the most population. They say the Electoral College forces candidates to build a nationwide coalition in order to win. There are also claims that, had the Electoral College been abolished, Bush still would have won the 2000 election. They reason that, knowing the election was to be focused on popular vote, Bush would have allocated his resources differently and still managed a victory.”
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
“The Founding Fathers established The Electoral College as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.” according to archives.gov. The Electoral College was an option out of four ideas as stated in a peer-reviewed article by William C. Kimberling, a Deputy Director FEC Office of Election Administration. He stated that during this time, the colonies had a small population and people where very spread out, an idea of a patriarchal figure is very displeasing, those are a couple of problems the Convention had to go through... The Constitutional Convention had a couple of ideas like for example Congress choosing the president, state legislature chooses the president and the popular vote, but they ultimately chose the Electoral College.
A sad truth comes to light as the results of a tight race for the next president starts to roll in. The truth is that the dysfunctional system that demonstrates the whole voting process takes the future of America 's leader, the one who will set many precedents and lessons for future generations to come, into the hands of former politicians and notable political figures, who take on the careless and unnecessary role of an elector. These electors are part of a voting system called the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a group of 538 people that are elected at state conventions to officially vote for the next presidential candidate based on each state 's popular vote. This structure is old and should be banned for several reasons.
The president of the United States is of utmost importance to the nation’s progress and success, both domestically and internationally. Hence, it follows that presidential elections are quite a popular event on a national level. Since the nation’s creation in 1776, it was clear that the president must be chosen wisely as well as fairly in order to preserve a democratic character in the United States and also to ensure an incapable president is note elected by the people. The solution that followed in response to these considerations was the establishment of the Electoral College, a method of indirect election of the president and his or her running mate for the vice presidency. The Electoral College establishes a group of electors who pledge to vote for the candidate of a specific political party.
Once the foundation of this institution had been laid out, the Electoral College went through two iterations - one before political parties were created and one after. The former involved a complicated series of events that would ensure the votes of the members of the Electoral College were fair and just without both political parties and national campaigns (Kimberling). The latter involved the creation of the 12th amendment (“requiring one vote for president and a separate vote for vice president”) in order to accommodate for the formation of political parties (Kimberling). Since then, the Electoral College has been proposed to be reformed or eliminated “700 times in the past 200 years” in order to get to the institution we know today (“U.S. Electoral College”). Thus, despite the overwhelming backlash over the last 200 years, the Electoral College still stands proud as our defining presidential election
Electoral College has maintained for hundreds of years and it’s time for a change because of the more and more serious problems it is causing. These are some reasons why we should consider replacing this system with a new more efficient one. Firstly, Electoral College creates the possibility for the candidate who loses the popular vote but wins the electoral vote to become president. In the much-publicized election of 2000, Vice President Al Gore beat Governor George W. Bush by more than 500,000 votes in the national popular tally but lost in the Electoral College because of a last-minute, 537-vote margin in Florida .
On balance, direct popular vote should replace the Electoral College when electing the President and Vice President of the United States. My team and I negates this resolution. In my following statement, I will outline three main contentions from my group’s research to demonstrate the efficiency and reliability of the Electoral College. One, the electoral college can show changing opinion towards a candidate. Two, the reliability of the Electoral College it only ever questioned around an election.
The Electoral College is a flawed system in which we choose our commander and chief of this country. The job of the electoral college is to determine the president and vice president. Each state has electors equal to the number of senators and representatives given to them specifically. There are 538 electors that are currently in the United States. Electors are appointed by state legislature and must be committed to a party.
