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Should Electoral College Be Abolished Essay

960 Words4 Pages

Should the Electoral College be Abolished? Who really votes for the President, population or state? When the Constitutional Convention, they agreed on the fact that the leader must be chosen by a system using an Electoral College because they did not believe that voters had enough information on the candidates to make a good decision. An Electoral College is a system in which the president and vice president are chosen indirectly. Each state and the District of Columbia get one electoral vote for each of their senators and representatives. A method is used, winner-take-all, where whichever candidate wins the most votes in the state wins all of the state’s electoral votes. For a candidate to be elected president he must receive a majority, …show more content…

Sometimes candidates win the popular vote but not the electoral vote. This has happened four times in American History, in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. (Doc G). In 1876 Hayes was elected president by electoral votes, even though Tilden won in popular vote. (Doc G) This is undemocratic because Tilden won the popular vote with 245,448 more votes but Hayes won the electoral vote with 1 more vote. The people were more in favor of Tilden but Hayes won the electoral vote, therefore making him president even though the people did not choose him. The popular vote does not really matter because a candidate can win the popular vote and not the electoral, which is not fair, for the people and the candidate. Voting is more dependent on states than than what the people want. People argue that the Electoral College gives states an important role in choosing the president which supports democracy. (Doc C) But if a person lost by a couple of popular votes in California, which has 55 electoral votes, then they will receive no electoral votes to show for their efforts. (Doc A) Just because a candidate lost by a couple popular votes does not mean they should lose all of the electoral votes; people voted for the candidate so that should be taken into account. This shows that individuals do not really have a say in the …show more content…

The citizens in the 12 states and the District of Columbia have a louder voice in the election process than the citizens in Illinois. The 12 states and the District of Columbia have less population combined than Illinois but they have more electoral votes than Illinois. (Doc D) Citizens in Illinois or other large states have less say proportionally in the presidential election than citizens in small states, meaning their votes are not equal. The Electoral College depends only on states where voters vote for presidents, which is politically inequal. (Doc D) Also if there were to be a tie in electoral votes, it would go to the House of Representatives, so all states would have one vote, which would further violate political equality. (Doc F) This shows that voting power is not

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“...the single representative from Wyoming, representing 500,000 voters, would have as much say as the 55 representatives from California, who represent 35 million voters” (Document F). States with less population have more say than a state with a larger population. California’s population is 70 times larger than the state of Wyoming’s. A larger population should have more say. the idea should not be that smaller states should have more representation because they are smaller; it should be that a state with larger population should have more representation.

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Obviously, if votes are not cast directly, they are not accurate representations of the wishes of the people. Once again, it must be seen that a group of thirteen states and regions with a combined population some 300,000 less than that of Illinois still receives more than twice the number of votes than that of the larger state (Document D). Therefore, in this example, the votes of people in Illinois count for much less than the

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Do the American citizens actually have a voice to choose the next president or is it illusion of freedom? Are the president ready been selected and, consequently, the government convinced the citizens that their vote counts and that they still have some influence over the political process? Is the election fair for everyone or is it nothing but a Hollywood production? Since the beginning of the American political history, our founding fathers established a system in the constitution called the electoral college that choose the next president instead of the citizens because they believe that the citizens were not educated enough to know what is best for the United States. Throughout history, the electoral college created an argument on whether

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In Document D, it visualizes the numbers between states with little amount of elector votes and compares it to a big state. The amount of electors in 12 little states on the east coast adds up to the amount of Illinois’ electors, considered a big state. Furthermore, if elections were based upon popular vote it would increase the amount of money spent during a campaign. That money could be used to better our country and maybe pay off some of the debt. As stated in Document C, “It is designed to promote good government and legislation that forwards the common good of a large and diverse nations.

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Our citizens want to have a say in whom they want for president. Our votes should matter equally as much as a member of the Electoral College. We are also citizens that live in the United States we should have a larger say in who leads us but with the electoral college that is taken away from us. Honestly, our vote doesn’t matter and doesn’t count, the electoral college vote is what matters (Document D) . They practically have the final say in who becomes the next president even if the citizens do not want that person for president.

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The battle for the Electoral College vote is usually a tough one and it reflects upon a supposed popular majority. The reason it’s difficult is because often times less populated states are over-represented in the winner-take-all type of situation, when they win the Electoral College the chances of them winning the election for President skyrockets. However, if there is a tie the House of Representatives will chose who is best based upon the top three candidates.

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Though not every state has the same amount of votes, some states are worth more than others, and their amount of votes is based on their population. Therefore, the United States should abolish the Electoral College because it gives people in smaller states more political power than those in larger states. However, some feel the U. S should not abolish the Electoral College

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What would you think if a presidential candidate got over 2 million more votes than the other candidate, but still lost? Does that seem fair to you? Well that sort of thing is exactly what the Electoral College does. The Electoral College is the unfair voting system America still uses to pick their president that needs to be abolished and changed to a popular vote system. The Electoral College is the current voting system used in America to elect their president.

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The first article's main point is that the United States of America should not get rid of the electoral college, but do away with the popular vote instead. The popular vote does not pick the president, it merely choosing which party of electors will be able to cast their votes towards their candidate. The article also said that instead of the electors for each state be the state's senators and representatives, they should be people of that state, decided by a lottery held before the election day. The second article said that if the country gets rid of the electoral college, then it would be as though the country is handing the election to the states that have the highest populations (i.e. California and Texas).

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In Document G, show us a Chart in which depicts that the candidate who wins the popular vote never wins the electoral vote. So, the candidate who receives more votes from the public never wins the presidency. So, why even campaign if the goal is to win less votes than your opponent so you don’t win the popular vote but win the presidency? In Document A, it shows us that any candidate could win the 270 votes by winning only eleven states. These eleven states are; California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), Illinois (29), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), and New Jersey (14).

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First, with the specifications of the electoral college there only needs to be 270 electoral votes to a person for them to win. With this rule only 12 states need to be won CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, OH, MI, GA, NC, and NJ(DOC A) and this is only a part of the overall population of America. While

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In fact, this is what the Electoral College was initially intended to be. It was made to be a compromise between the smaller states and the larger ones back when it was first written. In theory this wouldn’t be an incredibly bad idea, however in practice the Electoral College has been exploited. Malicious parties have used the Electoral College to win the presidency without winning the popular vote. While it is true that the Electoral College gives small states more power during the elections it takes away from other voters, for example look at Texas and Wyoming.

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The number of electors in each state is equaled two plus one for each member of the House of Representatives, and Washington DC has three votes, bringing the total number of electors to 538 (“What is the Electoral College?”). It’s a well-known fact that when the public goes to vote for a candidate they also vote for the corresponding vice president. A much less well-known fact is that they are actually voting for the electors as well; by voting democratic or republican the corresponding electors for the party are elected as well (“Electoral College” 2010). Then on the Monday after the second Wednesday of December the electors assemble in a central location in each state and cast their votes for president. In forty-eight states, there is a “winner-take-all-system” where the highest vote getter in the state gets all the electoral votes, however in two states, Maine and Nebraska, there is a proportionality system in place; where if one third of the votes are for one party and two thirds are for another, the electors will split and one third of the state electoral votes will go to one party and the rest will go to another (“What is the Electoral College?”).

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