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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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Many people are not satisfied with the way a president is chosen in the United States. There are two systems of voting that are shown during the election, popular vote, and electoral college. The system that is used to elect the next president is the electoral college. People believe that popular vote should be the way the president should be chosen since it involves the whole citizens of the United States. This is due to the controversy people have given to the electoral college. This controversy is centered around the idea that the electoral college was used to take power away from larger states. Popular vote is, by no means, the better system since it has flaws of its own like giving large states more power. Due to certain disqualifying …show more content…

One of these is that the election could come down to a dead lock, if this happens the electoral votes decide the election anyway, if the college is also split it then falls on the two houses of congress to elect the president. The senate is.charged with choosing our vice president each state gets a vote and the winner was then the elected vice president. Similarly, the house of representatives is charged with electing the president. In the event, there has been no president elected by the house before inauguration day then the vice president elect takes office as the president until the house elects the president. There are other reasons that they used the system we are currently using they are mostly outdated because they must do with a time when there were not just two major and well defined political parties. Every state or even region was likely to nominate their own candidate and it made the founding fathers were afraid that the people may accidently elect a person that they didn't really know much about and that was unsuitable for office. Though it is explained in McCollister essay, that without the electoral college it could mean that “would be destroy the two-party system” which wasn’t the “intention of the Founding Fathers, but is just the consequence of the electoral college”. Without modern technology, it would make it hard for the people to really know who they had voted for. This is somewhat not true anymore, there are possibly candidates that people don't know much about but since the advent of radio, television, and now even the internet people are much more well informed than they were in the 1700's. If you don't know what you need to know about a candidate or what he/she stands for then it’s easy to come by that information. The tricky part is determining if the source providing the information you receive is

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564 Words | 3 Pages

However, many states make a requirement for the electors to vote for the candidate with the most votes of that state. The Electoral College was originally created to prevent the people of the United States from having too much power. Mainly because the creators of the Constitution, were very wary of any one group acquiring too much power. Also, at the time of the creation of the Constitution, it was almost impossible for citizens to be able to go and cast

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1953 Words | 8 Pages

The year a new president must be chosen is always a time of tension in the United States. Hopeful candidates run for president, and citizens start swearing their allegiance to a candidate and party. The GOP and DNC start grooming the candidates they wish to have as president while independent candidates are just trying to get their names in the news. One of the topics that is always criticized and defended around the time of the presidential elections is always the Electoral College. One side say it is undemocratic and unfair, and the other side says that it is a pillar of the United States government.

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1594 Words | 7 Pages

The framers of the United States Constitution had a difficult task deciding how this country should be governed. Many challenges to their thoughts, fears, and decisions proliferate even after more than two centuries. Many disagree, for instance, with the way in which our nation's President and Vice President are elected. In essence, The Electoral College is a compromise between the choice of President and Vice President being made by a vote in Congress and being made by a popular vote of the people.

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1221 Words | 5 Pages

Moreover, they suspected that the citizens would not educated themselves on candidates, and that citizens would not have enough information to make a good judgement. Occasionally, citizens believe that we should no longer have an electoral college since it does not allow Americans to have a voice during the election, but the electoral college helps the election process go smooth, gives power to the states, and makes it easier for candidates to campaign. Imagine going to a polling place, everyone frantic and nervous about who to choose since they have all the power in their hands. They may have briefly looked over candidates and are not positive on who to decide. Do you want clueless people deciding the future of our country?

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People vote for the candidates by voting for the electors that reflect the viewpoints of the particular candidate and their personal political opinion. With that said, the Electoral College is a winner take all system where the states have voted and the majority vote of the presidential candidate goes to the electors that then cast their votes for the states. The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College in the Constitution for a couple of reasons. Schulman (n.d.) states the first reason it was fabricated “was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President” (p. 1). Although, another significant reason that the Electoral College was created was for equal representation in voting

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1570 Words | 7 Pages

Ever since the election involving Bush and Gore, the viability of the Electoral College has become a heatedly debated topic. The question is whether the Electoral College is still an effective system considering the conditions the United States faces today as opposed to the conditions that the Founding Fathers faced when they created it. For over one hundred and fifty years, the United States has used this system, and controversy has followed it ever since. It was created in an effort to protect the people and institution of America by putting the final vote of the presidency in the hands of a trusted and respected few. These few have the power to disregard the popular vote due to the fact that there is still no federal law demanding electors

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756 Words | 4 Pages

The Founding Fathers were having to deal with conflict between the states, since the states wanted to have the power. Giving the states power was a very important issue for them and by using choosing the Electoral College, the federal structure remains the same where the political powers are given to the states. “The Senate was designed to represent each State equally regardless of its population. And the Electoral College was designed to represent each state’s choice for the presidency.” The Founding Fathers may have concluded that individual state populations opinion were more important that the opinion of the national population so they made the Electoral College in order to makes the state’s opinion matter

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894 Words | 4 Pages

The electoral college keeps the federal system of government. Our founding fathers spent hours debating and creating our current system of government and election systems. The federal system has lasted america hundreds of years without fail. Many say current government officials should not mess with a seemingly flawless system. The current election systems ensures the people have a say in who is elected president but do not hold all of the power.

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341 Words | 2 Pages

When the delegates of the Constitutional Convention met they wanted to establish a leader since under the Articles of the Confederation there was no executive branch. So the delegates decided to create the offices of the president of the vice president. The delegates were in fear of a creating tyrant like they had previously with Britain, so they had to limit this new leader’s power. To prevent a tyrant from ruling again the delegates creating the Electoral College and this system is where the people select to president and the vice president indirectly. The reason the delegates did not let the people chose directly was they did not trust them because most Americans were illiterate at the time and heard their news from others.

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Despite all the attempts, the Electoral College has stood the test of time. Why? Because without it, candidates would no longer be required to seek support throughout the country. They could focus solely on highly populated areas and completely ignore the needs of less populated states and regions. Before the Electoral College was officially named the way we would elect a president, the framers had narrowed it down to three options: election by the senate alone, election by the house, or electors chosen by the state 's representation in congress (McCollester).

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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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643 Words | 3 Pages

The electoral college is the system that has been used to elect Presidents in the United States since the Constitution was established. However, there has been a debate that the electoral college should be abolished. (Claim) The Electoral College should be abolished and replaced with a direct popular vote. This system goes against the Constitution by undermining democracy, and the distribution of voting weight in states is extremely uneven.

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1026 Words | 5 Pages

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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845 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College was put into the character for some elemental and very straightforward reasoning which are still applicable and important today. Our country was founded as a commonwealth, and along with having a king, the idea of a 'democracy ' was pretty much a apprehension to our founding fathers. their concept of a representative commonwealth in which people of high aspect and in good continuing would be elected to point in association and so on was established in the acceptance that these good men would do what was right without concern to amount and or personal or economical achievement. Forward the way, of development, much of that has dissipate, and the circumstances nation and economical advisability have come to leading a

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975 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College is a longstanding organization in place in the United States of America that was originally established by the Founding Fathers in create equality in presidential elections has become a topic of harsh criticism and controversy over the years. The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers of the United States at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in order ensure there was representation of the people while keeping the best interests of the nation in mind (“What is the Electoral College?”). At the time of the writing of the Constitution, there were two main ideas on how to elect a president. The first was that there should be a simple vote of all eligible people and who ever gets the most votes becomes

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