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The Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

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The Electoral College has caused numerous problems in the past and have consequently changed the outcomes of numerous elections including the elections of 1800 (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Aaron Burr), 1824 (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden), 1888, (Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison), and 2000 (George W. Bush and Al Gore). throughout these elections the same catastrophe has occurred; The winner of the popular vote did not receive the presidency due to the Electoral College votes. In addition to the problems, there have been multiple close calls, for the example the elections of 1968 and 1976. While many analysts of American politics have come to …show more content…

What did you not see the DraStic change it would make in the political system, such as an incourage multi-party system. A few analysts have thought of ideas that do not abolish it but many Electoral College. Their ideas consist of congressional district allegation, proportional allocation, and the Electoral College with super electors. Under the system of congressional district allegation electors would be apportioned one to each congressional district and then the two Senator electors. This plan can help to expand the campaigns playing field. This allows the smaller States their chance to receive direct contact with the presidential candidates. Congressional district allegation also allows chance for more parties to win electoral votes, although this may also cause the fragmentation of parties and cause the larger parties to scrounge the minimum number of electoral vote for the presidency. Proportional allocation would have each State's electoral votes divided in the same proportion as that State's popular vote. This plan would have the effect of forcing the candidates to campaign in the smaller, less well-known places. Through the campaigning in the smaller Districts this may have the impact of boosting voter enthusiasm and hopefully causing a spike in participation due to the fact of the candidates reaching out to those who are often ignored in the race. Although this seems a reasonable approach this causes more of an issue of fragmentation than congressional district ting. Lastly, there is the Electoral College with super electors. This idea was introduced by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 2000. he proposed that “... candidates would continue to compete for electors on a state-by-state, winner-take-all basis, but the winner of the national popular vote would be awarded a set of bonus

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Gerrymandering Position Paper Gerrymandering is the irregular redrawing of district lines to give one political party an advantage. Gerrymandering usually starts with a census. Every ten years, it is necessary to recount the people to redistribute the seats for the members of the House of Representatives. If a state gains or loses states it is necessary to reapportion the state.

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They are used in many different countries, would guarantee the President has full support of the people and it would eliminate the Electoral College, a system many view as old and outdated. Also, many countries who use direct elections with popular vote seem relatively happy with their design. Schlesinger has an important take on why direct elections would not function well in the U.S. “Direct-election proposals recognize that ideological and/or personalist parties would drain votes away from the major parties. Consequently, most direct-election proposals provide that, if no candidate receives 40% of the vote, the two top candidates would fight it out in a run-off” (Schlesinger 2000).

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Because there are two practices for effective gerrymandering, there can be political advantages for the parties. The two successful practices are the “Packing a district” and “cracking a district” (Greer 1). The packing a district means to gain more and more districts in favor (Greer 1). This will cause less packing or votes to go to the opposed party. It is simple.

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It is important to note that each district only gets one representative regardless of the district’s population size. Therefore, gerrymandering creates a very unequal Congressional representation because it can give seats to a party even when the majority of the people in that district do not want them there. This paper will aim to discuss the flaws as well as benefits of gerrymandering, the situation today with recent news of gerrymandering in America, and potential compromises and solutions regarding gerrymandering for the future. II.

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Vincy Fon author of, “Electoral College Alternatives and U.S. Presidential Elections,” presents two possible allocation systems. The first system, called the perfect proportional allocation system, would convert the state’s popular votes into the corresponding percentage of electoral votes. This system would require the use of decimals and the exact number of popular votes cast. The system would have to be highly efficient and closely monitored. Due to the preciseness, the presidential race would be hard to cover because of the large number of decimal places (45).

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There are several ways to elect a president who received a minority of the votes. The main way to have this happen is to have three or more candidates split the electoral votes between themselves and then have the house of repersentives vote to determine the winner. This has occurred only one time history which was in 1824 in the presidential election between: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay, with the winner being John Quincy Adams. Another issue people often have with the Electoral College is the risk of a faithless elector. A faithless elector is a member of the Electoral College whose state has pledged their vote to one candidate and then the elector then votes for another.

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Throughout American history, there were five cases where the electoral college votes did correspond with the popular vote during the elections of: Jackson, Tilden, Cleveland, Gore, and Clinton (Doc. G). When the founders gathered together in 1787 to write the Constitution, they were worried about many topics and did not want the Constitution to fail just as the Articles of Confederation. They considered many topics and thoroughly wrote a remarkable Constitution, excluding the slavery of African Americans, they did not want the government to be too strong and also did not want the people to have too much input. They greatly questioned: Who will choose the President? Therefore, they created the electoral college that is merely based on population

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For example, if one electoral vote in Massachusetts is worth 595,239 people, then one electoral vote in New Hampshire should be worth the exact same. Instead, one vote in New Hampshire is worth 329,118 people. One of the ideals that the United States runs on is equality. The same should be done with its electoral

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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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There is no real need for these parties. Most people would not agree with all of one party's ideas. Each issue will cause much more than two opinions, which is why parties are not needed. Political parties are more easily abolished without the useless Electoral College. This is all stated by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., ¨Electoral College Debate: Election 2000:

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Voting turnouts would consequently decrease drastically, and this “government for the people, by the people” would immediately dismantle. Sustaining our Two-Party system is the only answer in keeping this country working together with a strong, diplomatic

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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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In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it

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All through the history of the United States of America, many people have discussed the abolishment of the Electoral College. For many reasons, some believe it is what makes our country have the type of government we have, some believe that it's what limits the power of the government, and many people such as Mitch McConnell believes it is what gives us our freedom and prosperity. While these are valid arguments there is a multitude of reasons to why the electoral college should be abolished. Such as there is only a need for twelve states in order to become the president, popular vote of the people for president can still lose, and the Swing states are given too much power and attention compared to that of the other states. This is why I believe in the abolishment of the Electoral College.

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However, this can be tough in areas of thick concentrations of either type of party. Districts should be decided based on competitiveness, and then geographic location, never for an individual or party

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