ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1313 Words6 Pages

Electoral College Paper The Electoral College is a system which compromises between popular vote and vote in Congress. Instead of having only a vote of majority or a vote of just Congress, the Electoral College works by first having a vote of population where you are voting for your candidates electors. After this vote, the electors meet in their respective states and they cast their votes for President and Vice President. To win the presidency, the candidate needs at least 270 votes out of 538. The Electoral College was established in 1787 and has been used ever since to vote for the President. The question now stands is the Electoral College still needed and why or why not? Firstly, it is important to take into account the context of the …show more content…

They believed that citizens would vote for the “favorite sons” of their home state. Another reason was to prevent bigger states from dominating the smaller states. According to Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Paper Number 68, the Electoral College was created as a compromise between large and small states. They were worried that states such as Massachusetts, New York, etc would dominate the presidency so they created this system (Brookings). However, there is now more technology and advancements to fix these issues that were faced during the creation of the Electoral College. So although the Electoral College may have been a good idea back in 1787, it might be time to reconsider this system with the advancements we have made in mind. There are however many valid reasons and benefits that come from the Electoral College system. The Electoral College helps represent small states and provide equal voices, as well as preventing a tyranny of the …show more content…

In conclusion, there are many reasons as to why we should keep the electoral college, as well as why we should abolish the electoral college. Keeping the electoral college enforces balance of power by making sure bigger states do not dominate over smaller states and prevents disproportionate influence, federalism by making candidates gain support from other states, and stability by resulting in clear and accurate outcomes. In today’s modern day, I believe the electoral college is not needed. Getting rid of the electoral college gets rid of democratic discrepancies as winning the presidency with just electoral votes and not popular votes undermines democratic values, unequal representation by giving smaller states more power, and lastly gets rid of outdated mechanisms. However, I do believe measures need to be taken to ensure that the bigger states do not dominate the smaller states and everyone gets a fair, equal

Show More
Related
564 Words | 3 Pages

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).

Read More
587 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

According to Document C, it protects the rights of states with smaller populations. Many states, like Montana and Wyoming, would never have had enough representation to have any power, but with the Electoral College, they have a say in the election of the president. This follows the same idea as the reason to divide Congress into two houses. The Electoral College also prevents unqualified people from becoming president. As described by Document E, using the winner-take-all method doesn’t give any votes to candidates who are not given the majority of votes, the ones most likely to be candidates for splinter parties.

Read More
331 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
785 Words | 4 Pages

The electoral college, created in 1787 and written into federal law in 1845, is a system in which citizens of the United States vote in general elections to choose a lineup of “electors” who pledge to vote for a particular party. Established by our Founding Fathers, it is made up of 538 members and is used by the people to indirectly elect the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States. Each state, however, does not obtain an unlimited amount of electors to choose from; the number of electors is equal to the number of members of Congress (House of Representatives and Senators) each state in entitled with. A candidate must receive a majority of 270 votes in order to win the presidency, an ideology that has begun to spiral down as the years, and presidential elections, go by.

Read More
1374 Words | 6 Pages

The Electoral College While some people believe their votes are contributing directly to the election of the President, most people are aware that their votes mean almost nothing compared to those of the Electoral College. The Electoral College consists of the electors who cast each state’s electoral votes. It is made up of 538 electors, each state having the same number of electors as Senate and House members combined, plus three votes from the District of Columbia. “To win the presidency, a candidate must receive at least 270 votes” and win the majority (Patterson 359).

Read More
1999 Words | 8 Pages

The United States Electoral College is a system that has been in place since the country's founding, and it has been the subject of much debate and controversy over the years. Some argue that the Electoral College is outdated and should be replaced with a popular vote system, while others believe that it serves an important purpose in the American political system. The electoral college has lead to fair and democratic elections for over 200 years, removing it would ruin fair elections, lead to less voter participation and could even lead to more corrupt leaders. The Electoral College provides power to small states and swing states.

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
569 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
885 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral college is one of the three systems that does not let the voice of people to be heard. The Electoral college is a twisted system, It states in Posner, R. A. (2012, November 12), “Candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate), takes all

Read More
1784 Words | 8 Pages

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).

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

This compromise helped give each state equal say in the government. As John Samples said to the Cato Institute in In Defense of the Electoral College, “ … the Electoral College makes sure that the states count in presidential elections… an important part of our federalist system - a system worth preserving… federalism is central to our grand constitutional effort to restrain power.” (Doc C). Since this nation is founded on federalism (the sharing of power between national and state governments), it only makes sense that each individual state would want equal say in the nation’s government. Samples knew that to keep the government running smoothly, each state needed equal representation in the government, thus the Electoral College.

Read More
1536 Words | 7 Pages

However, Schlesinger’s proposal mentioned earlier brings up an interesting point; why was the Electoral College included in the Constitution? It is important to note that the framers defended the Electoral College as necessary for the production of “extraordinary persons” as Presidents because they would be selected by “men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station” of the Presidency (Duquette et al., 2017). Additionally, the Electoral College prevents any national vote recounts from occurring, limiting them to specific jurisdictions where the disputes are held, not unlike the Florida election recount of 2000. In layman’s terms, the Electoral College was never intended to serve as an instrument for direct democracy, but rather protect against it for fear of the passions and prejudice of the majority. In the eyes of the framers, the function of government is to protect unalienable rights and promote justice — such things were not to be decided by majority rule.

Read More
517 Words | 3 Pages

Dating back to 1787 the Electoral College has been the number one system for selecting our president. Many people wonder why we use this method instead of the popular vote. About 225 years ago Alexander Hamilton said “A smaller number of persons selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to have the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.” (3)This was true in 1787 because many of the people were uneducated and it was quite possible that they would select a president that would really threaten the federal government. To prevent this they selected educated electors to go and vote for their state.

Read More
646 Words | 3 Pages

The biggest reason the Electoral College is such a good system is that it is the fairest way to choose the President. This system allows each state at least 3 votes, 2 from their senators and then 1 for each representative. The larger states can have more representatives than smaller states.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

Open Document