There are many proposed plans to run the government and decide the next president. Ideas including the District Plan, the Proportional Plan, the Direct Popular Election, the National Bonus Plan, and the National Popular Vote plan are in mind to fix the current system yet none have been decided. Currently, the president is decided by a method known as the Electoral College; however, this method has many disadvantages. In the United States today, the government runs a system known as the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is a system that was established in Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution. It is a system that is used to elect the next President of the United States. The number of electors are based on the number of seats a state holds in the Senate and the House of Representatives. So, when a voter places his ballot. It cast a vow for the elector of that state to vote towards that voted candidate (1).
The United States government is one of the most admired and complex in the world, On the contrary one of the fundamental components that has an extensive impression on the American People and the Election is the Electoral College. Our founding fathers created The Electoral College over two hundred years ago, and it is still in effect today. They feared that having just the Popular Vote would give too much power to one person. In this paper, we will be discussing what the Electoral College is, the benefits and disadvantages of the Electoral College as well as if the Electoral College should be abolished or reconstructed.
The 2017 election has chosen Donald j. trump as the president of the united states. Donald trump as the president, just think about how the election process really works and how its chooses our commander and chief of the military. The way the united states chooses who will be the next president is by the electoral college is a process when people vote for electors who then vote for the president or vice president of the united states. The electoral college was created by our founding fathers as a compromise between the “election of the president by a vote congress and the election of the president by popular vote if the qualified citizens.” (source1: what is the electoral college).
The Electoral College is pretty much a process that was established in the Constitution by the founding fathers which was suppose to be a compromise between election of the President by a vote in congress and by the popular vote of citizens. This process consists of the selection of electors, the meeting of the electors is where they vote for the President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. In the Electoral College it contains 538 electors and to win the majority they need to have 270 electoral votes. As well as, the number of electors for every state is equal to the number of Representations that the state has in congress which is based on the population and there is also one vote for each Senator. So, each state has at least three electors and votes.
The Electoral College is one of the most controversial features of the American political system. It has been around for many years and has played a significant role in politics. This complex system comes with many advantages and disadvantages. The Electoral College is a system that is used every 4 years when voters nominate a set of electors who are responsible for electing the President and Vice President.
It gives the smaller states a voice, that could have been ignored if the popular vote only counted. The Electoral College helps the candidates and their party keep their campaign organized, if the they know the amount of votes they are looking for they can organize how much time they spend campaigning in each state (Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College). Also helps keep a sense of stability, but setting up a 2 party system of voting, and also gives the states to make their own laws on voting and being able to make amendments accordingly (Advantages and Disadvantages of Electoral College). The Electoral College also helps avoid the chance of fraud occurring or national recounts (Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College). Even though the system has many advantages it also has many disadvantages as
The electoral college was defined in the book of Sidlow as the group of electors who are selected by the voters in each state to officially elect the president and vice president (2016, p. 194). This is the so-called "Committee of Eleven" in the Constitutional Convention proposed an indirect election of the president through a College of Electors. Based from my readings, I think the founding fathers put the electoral college in our Constitution as the solution to the problem that they were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that was composed of thirteen large and small states. This is to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President.
These unknown electors are the true people who determine the outcome of the election, not the citizens of the United States. Furthermore, these electors have no Constitutional provisions that require them to follow the will of the citizens (“About the Electors”). Some states do have laws which require electors to vote in accordance to the popular vote of each respective state.
They would ignore the less populated areas in between. They also argue that it would be dangerous and unnecessary to replace a system that has functioned for over 200 years. Proponents of the Electoral College system defend it because they believe that the Electoral College contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be President, enhances the status of minority interests, contributes to the political stability of the nation, and maintains a federal system of government. Proponents say that the voters of even small miniorties in a State may make the difference between winning all of the State’s electoral votes or none of the State’s electoral votes. They argue that the original design of the federal system was thought out and wisely debated.
The Electoral College is a system that has been used in the United States to choose its President and Vice President. It involves a group of electors chosen by each state who cast their votes on behalf of the citizens of their respective states. The candidate who receives a majority of the electoral votes, at least 270 out of 538, becomes the President of the United States. While some people argue that the Electoral College system is outdated and should be replaced with an alternative method, I firmly believe that it is the best system for our nation. My position statement is that the Electoral College system should be retained as it is the best way to elect the President and Vice President of the United States.
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” - Winston Churchill. This belief that the average voter is incompetent is the reason why the electoral college was created; the electors provide a barrier between the ill-informed public and the government. The founders of America, the unquestionable champions of democracy themselves, did not trust the average American to choose what is best for the country. But were they right?
As of last year’s election we all can say there were surely disputes, but who do we blame? Well, many articles have come out stating their opinions on the Electoral College whether it served its purpose or not. For example Corrie Goldman from The Humanities at Stanford say that “Why do we still let the Electoral college pick our president?” And his point of view clearly states he is strongly against the idea, he claims that “I could say fatal – flaws.
The Electoral College: A Safeguard of Federalism or an Outdated Institution? Emily Gerard Professor Ethridge Government & Politics 27 June 2015 The Electoral College is a controversial institution and beginning with the 12th amendment there have been periodic attempts to reform it. In fact, “The provisions for electing the President and Vice President have been among the most amended in the Constitution.”
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.
