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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The Electoral College is a method that was established by the Founding Fathers of the United States within the Constitution. The Electoral College has been the subject of more proposed amendments than any other provision of the U.S. Constitution (Richie and Levien 353). The Founding Fathers did not intend for the Electoral College to be a perfect democratic system, but James Madison, strongly opposed winner-take-all laws. The Electoral College is a vital part of Federalism, which is the foundation of the system of government and without it no candidate would be likely to receive a majority (Bond and Smith 343-352). Though, there are many downfalls to the Electoral College. Some of the founders had a profound distrust of ordinary citizens’ abilities to make good judgments about choosing a president. Madison, Hamilton, and others believed that the presidency should reflect the preference of the people, but suggested it should be refined through intermediaries who have superior knowledge and judgment (Bond and Smith 343-352). …show more content…

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. The number of electors is different for every state and is based on the number of Congress members within the state. The minimum number of electoral votes a state receives is three; one for each member in the House of Representatives and two for every member in the Senate. There are eight states with the minimum electoral votes, which are Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. California has the largest representation of electoral votes at fifty-five. The weight of each vote depends on which state the individual lives (Bond and Smith

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The Electoral College has been our presidential election procedure since 1787. This system was created to indirectly choose the president in a way that fits the desire of the citizens, which also prevents uninformed voters from deciding upon the country’s leader. Each state receives one electoral vote for each member of Congress, which totals up to 538 electors.

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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).

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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.

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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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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The Electoral College system, written in the U.S. Constitution, holds each state entitled to some of its electors according to its representation in Congress. According to Fortier, the number of electors is similar to that of the congressional representation for the states (Fortier, p. 6). On the day of the election, the voters do not directly vote for the national presidential candidates but rather vote for an elector pledged to a particular candidate. Suppose the person who is a major popular vote in a state wins. In that case, all of that state's electoral votes are planned to go to the EM, except Maine and Nebraska, where the electors are allocated proportionately.

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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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While there is still a degree of dispute over the claim, many historians agree that the idea of the Electoral College came about late in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 through the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters. The members and of the Committee, along with the majority of the Founding Fathers, supported the idea of an Electoral College because they wanted residents in states with smaller populations to have an effect on the presidential election. Furthermore, the Founding Fathers supported the Electoral College because it helped to balance the vote of the general American people with the vote of the elite and knowledgeable electors. Moreover, the Electoral College provides insulation for the presidential election against political manipulation. In Federalist No. 68, Alexander Hamilton defended the idea of an Electoral College because he felt that it helped to protect the state’s power in presidential elections.

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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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Many may believe that the Electoral College is a place but it is a process that is taken by Congress. “The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers as a compromise in the Constitution between elections of the President by votes in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens” ("U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is The Electoral College?" 2017). “There are 538 electors in the Electoral College because the number of electors is based on the number of members of Congress---435 in the House of Representatives. , 100 in the Senate---plus 3 electors who represent the District of Columbia. A presidential candidate needs a simple majority of votes (270) to win” (Harrison, Harris and Deardorff).

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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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