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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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A government institution that is constantly questioned is the Electoral College. There are many positive and negative elements of the Electoral College. Many argue if we should keep it in our election system. The Electoral College has always been a very controversial issue in American politics. The Electoral College has many good attributes some of those include giving equal representation to the small states and keeping the system simple. “The election of 2000 is one of the rare cases where the winner of the popular vote did not also win the electoral vote, but the electoral vote reflected the fact that Bush won in far more states (30) than did Gore, and thus highlighted the federal nature of the system.” The outcome of this election shows how the Electoral College more accurately represents the citizens votes than the popular vote. In this scenario without the electoral college the election would have been swayed in favor of the larger more populous states. “the Electoral Colleges strengthens the two-party system and discourages third-party challengers who could further fragment the existing political system.” Another …show more content…

“ one of the most undemocratic features of the current system.” how undemocratic the Electoral College is definitely one of its most negative aspects. When people vote for president they are not voting for the president but for their electors. Therefore, the votes are not really coming directly from the citizens. “By guaranteeing each state a minimum of three votes, the existing system over represents the people of the smallest states.” How the number of electors are determined result in the small states receiving a unproportionally large amount in relation to their population. This can sway elections to either side causing a dishonest outcome. The Electoral College has some major faults in its

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The Electoral College helped to protect and promote the two party system seen throughout the United States government. The electoral college helps to keep the two party system be forcing a third party into moving into one of the two main parties: Democratic or Republican (3) This can be seen as an advantage because votes would end up being spread among the different party candidates that it could make it difficult to count the votes, lead to a possible number of recounts, and make the whole process much more difficult. This leads to another advantage of being able to prevent enormous amounts of voter fraud. The electoral college can prevent this because no matter how many voter's ballots are counted, the electoral college keeps only a set amount of electoral votes. Another Advantage that can be seen is that the Electoral College motivate compromise among the parties but also help to promote moderation of political beliefs.

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The electoral college is a process the founding fathers established in the constitution with the intent to create a safeguard between the population and the selection of a president, and to give extra power to smaller states. However, based on the information presented in the articles the electoral college should be abolished as it violates our right of political equality, and fails to represent a third, independent, party in any election. Although there are many reasons to abolish the electoral college, the principal reason to take action would be the result of an obvious violation of our right to be politically equal. As shown in the chart provided (Doc D) 12 of the lowest populated states and the District of Columbia have almost the

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450 Words | 2 Pages

Did you know that the Electoral College was created as a compromise between those Founding fathers who wanted the president elected by Congress and those who wanted direct election by the people? Presidents are elected by a group of 538 electors, acting on behalf of the states and not by the citizens. This arrangement is called the Electoral College. Every four years, millions of United States citizens vote for a president and a vice president of the United States.

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In an article by Procon.org, it states “The Founding Fathers enshrined the Electoral College in the US Constitution because they thought it was the best method to choose the president” (The Electoral College: Top 3 Pros and Cons). This is important because the Founding Fathers created the Constitution to establish the rules of the nation, basically to keep the peace. They figured that if they set rules and precedents in place, there would be tranquility. Without the government, there would not be life, liberty, and property. It was not easy for George Washington and the others to establish this new rule.

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427 Words | 2 Pages

I must preface this discussion with the fact that I am anything but, pro Electoral College. Nonetheless, the Electoral College is a method of voting within our democracy, which each state is allocated a certain amount of “electors” who are sworn to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their respective state. However, there are two exceptions to this rule, the states of Nebraska and Maine, which bifurcate their respective electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote. The quantity of electoral votes in any given state is grounded in the state’s congressional representation. Respectively, each state is afforded two votes for every Senator with an added vote for every member of the House of Representatives, which is in-turn grounded in volume of the state population.

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Most of the time the electors vote for the candidate of their state, but 87 times in the past, electors have voted for the other candidate. Another problem with the electoral college is that some states have different population to elector ratios. Each state has a minimum of three electoral college votes because each state has two senators and at least one representative. Because of this, it may take three Californians votes to be equal to one person in Wyoming's

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976 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College has been widely debated since the Bush and Al Gore election in 2000 and has divided the country. In the 2016 election, the popular vote was nearly split in half, showing that people have very different political views. The founding fathers thought it would be the best way to choose a president, but times have changed. A system where a group of electors from each state has the power to override every vote cast in the America for the next president is absolutely intolerable. The Electoral College is no longer relevant now that a two-party system is in place.

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This electoral system is inherently undemocratic, as it fails to adequately represent the collective opinion of the nation, and it, in turn, disadvantages citizens that do not live in large swing states. The system of the Electoral College violates the tenets of democracy in several ways. In the 21st century

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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.

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8). The reason that it is highly controversial is because some people believe that it is not right for the people to not be able to decide the president and vice-president directly, this is the view-point that I take. The Electoral College supporters; however, believe that the Electoral College is necessary in deciding the president, they believe that it is necessary due to the process backing the United States as being a republic and not a

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1956 Words | 8 Pages

A positive attribute is the Electoral Votes allows multiple regions to be in focus, benefiting the entire population. However, a negative of the Electoral College system results in a system in which certain states are ignored in the electoral process, either due to their number of electoral votes or depending on which way their vote swings. In, addition to that issue, the popular vote seems to be not accounted for, as seen in the most recent election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Overall, the Electoral College should be eradicated from the Constitution, mainly because it is not an accurate representation of the peoples of the nation's vote, and voters have access to information to make an educated vote. Being so, more states need to enact the National Popular vote so the Electoral votes will have to be based on the popular vote of that

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904 Words | 4 Pages

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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1104 Words | 5 Pages

For many years, America’s voting system has been criticized, with the main point of interest being the Electoral College. Some say that the Electoral College is necessary to streamline and simplify the voting process, while others say that it is outdated and takes away power from American citizens. After investigating the subject, it is clear that the Electoral College should be abolished due to the three major defects its critics find in the system; its undemocratic nature, its tendency to give small states’ votes too much power, and its disastrous effects on third-party candidates. The first, and possibly largest, defect in the Electoral College is its undemocratic nature. A professor of political science once said that “the Electoral College violates political equality” (Edwards 453).

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“That creates a system of government that tends to be indecisive and weak because everyone argues for their own best interests.” (Gaille). The electoral college may not be perfect, but it allows for decisions to be made quickly. Not everyone thinks alike and that means that no matter what happens the government will not please everybody. A leader is supposed to be able to lead.

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539 Words | 3 Pages

One advantage is that it eliminates victory based on solely on populations. This gives power to states no matter what size rather than the population of the state. If the Electoral College was not in place this will lead to campaign solely on the big states rather than all. The Electoral College will continue to create and maintain a two party system. It allows for some continuity and stability for the current government.

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