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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The textbook definition of the Electoral College is “a unique American institution, created by the constitution, providing for the selection of the president by electors chosen by the states parties. Although the Electoral College vote usually reflects a popular majority, less populated states are overrepresented and the winner-take-all rule concentrates campaigns on close states” (Edwards and Wattenberg 643). In the definition itself it notes disproportionate representation which is one of the many flaws within this system. The National Popular Vote Plan is an alternative system that would still use electors to cast their votes but instead it would give each state’s votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote. This plan has …show more content…

The National Popular Vote Plan would eliminate many of the issues seen today while still having characteristics that are present in the current Electoral College. Issues such as disproportionate representation and neglecting smaller states during the campaign would be very minor or even nonexistent. Changing our election process would have clear benefits and would create a system which would have a closer representation of a democracy.
“ The Electoral College operates to create the illusion of popular mandate” ( Riggs, Hobbs, Riggs 2). It makes us believe we are picking our president but in reality the Electoral College is made up of 538 electors who meet anytime between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December to decide our president (Dixon 6). These electors are here to represent the United States population of approximately 309,000,000 people. This would mean 1 electoral vote represents 574,000 people (Video 2). Every state must have at least 3 votes in the current system and the District of Columbia gets to vote even when it is not a state while territories like Puerto Rico do not get to vote even when people living there are US citizens. This

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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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However, voters do not vote for a specific elector, they just vote which party they are affiliated with. The popular vote is just as important as the Electoral College vote, but it does not determine the outcome. Fundamentally, the popular vote is just to see how many voters favor which presidential candidate the most. “Democratic and Republican state parties nominate their own slates of electors-some as early as the spring and others as late as October. In many states, elector candidates are picked at congressional district and state conventions, when local activists also pick their delegates to the national convention.”

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