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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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The US’s Electoral College has always been a controversial topic. When it was written into the Constitution, it was meant as a compromise between the small and large states, and between Congress and the states (M. West). Since then, the Electoral College system has been how the United States elected its presidents. However, it continues to face criticism and many want the system to change, favoring systems such as a national popular vote instead (National Conference of State Legislatures). Despite how the US’s Electoral College effectively balances power between the states and the federal government, it is still a deeply flawed voting system due to it being based on unrealistic expectations and outdated ideals that should be changed to reflect …show more content…

In the first place, the argument against the national popular vote does not apply today. The idea of the popular vote was rejected because the general public was seen as uneducated and was not trusted to make an informed decision (M. West). However, as opposed to when the Constitution was made, the vast majority of the public today is much more educated because of the widespread availability of public education and the internet. Additionally, the concept of electors is not used to its original purpose. In the elections, “more than 99 percent of electors” voted according to their state’s popular vote, and none affected the final result (“About the Electors”). But, the electors were originally implemented because they were meant to vote independently as opposed to having the general population or Congress decide the presidency, rather than in today where the electoral system is more used as a distribution of votes between states (M. West). Besides, with the growing popularity of the national popular vote, the electoral college system may even eventually become irrelevant if enough states favor it. For instance, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement between states in which each state agrees to cast its electoral votes toward the candidate winning the national popular vote (Congressional Research Services). If states totaling 270 votes join the compact, it will deem the Electoral College ineffective in favor of the national popular vote, and “[a]s of December 2022, 15 states and Washington, D.C., had adopted legislation to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact”, representing 195 Electoral College votes

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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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Overlooking loopholes of the faithless electors, it is now known that the U.S. Electoral College system has seemed to have failed the United States numerous times, within the

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The Electoral College has a total of 538 electoral votes. Which means in the House there are 435 votes, 100 in the Senate, and not forgetting the three electoral votes Washington D.C. receives.   This mean that the number of electors could change according to how the population changes in number, by each decade according to the census.  Also for a voter to win they need to have 270 or more votes, to receive a majority rule.

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The United States has benefited from the Electoral College for hundreds of years. This essay will discuss the presidential voting process and the merits of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a more effective method of choosing the president than the general election. This is due to the fact that it greatly improves efficiency and ensures the integrity of the election. There would be a huge number of candidates to pick from if the Electoral College did not exist and we had a public vote instead.

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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

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Though unlikely to be at the forefront of any 2016 presidential platforms, the Electoral College is a widely contested issue among partisans, many of who believe that a better method exists for selecting the President of the United States. This anti-Electoral College sentiment is also present among Americans nationwide, Republicans and Democrats alike. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 61% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats would vote to do away with the Electoral College. In today’s contentious political atmosphere, in which Republicans and Democrats are constantly at odds with one another, any level of agreement between the parties clearly indicates that a change needs to be made. Changes are already starting to occur at the state level,

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According to the National Archives, the Electoral College is, “...a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.'' The Electoral College was created in the late 1700’s, and was used as a buffer between the voting population and the official selection of the president. For the founding fathers, this solved a wide array of problems: the possible risk of leaving the power of choosing who the leader of the country to ill -informed voters, unequal representation and distribution of votes between the North and South of the U.S., and supported the idea of separation between powers in the government. In this country, it has been believed that the government has been built off of popular sovereignty, the theory that the government is created by and is subject to the will of its citizens. But how is this concept valid when the people of the United States don’t directly vote and decide who will govern them?

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In light of recent presidential elections, more and more of the public as turned their attention to the process in which the president is elected. Four times in history the president was elected due to votes in the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. (Wheeler, 2007) Most agree that the Electoral College is unfair because the candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote is not necessarily who the president will be on inauguration day. (Gringer, 2008)

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The Electoral College is the system that determines who our next president and vice president will be. The Electoral College is currently made up of 538 electors, with a majority of 270 votes to win the election. Each state gets electors based on how many people in the House of Representatives plus two for each state’s senators. ("U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College?" National Archives and Records Administration.

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  The Electoral College and the Pros and Cons of Electoral Votes and Popular Votes When planning on the election process of the USA during the Constitutional Convention, the politicians of the time wanted to make it so that citizens chose their president indirectly. This was the initial birth of the Electoral College, which is composed of state electors. These state electors make their vote based on their state’s popular vote. The parties

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The electoral college which was established at the same time that the rest of the three branches were set up, has been heralded as one of, if not the most controversial part of the modern government. Created in the constitution in Article Two, the Electoral College is a process in which the United States chooses its Chief Executive, the president. The Electoral College is made up of 538 members who are chosen, most often, by state party conventions (there is no exact way that is required for the choosing of states’ electors). Once the popular vote is collected the electors pledge themselves to a candidate, normally the person who won the popular vote but not always. This means that sometimes there will be a disparity between who wins the popular

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427 Words | 2 Pages

Your vote doesn’t go to an "elector", Instead your vote automatically goes to the presidential candidate you voted for. This seems much fairer since your vote isn't being controlled by someone else. Many people don't know the difference. As stated at the beginning of the essay it's pushed aside and forgotten about. There have been many people who argue that the electoral college is good where it's at.

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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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Electoral College is the United State’s democratic voting system of determining the next president. However, it poses a problem on how the United States chooses the next president. The Electoral College is a problem because electoral votes are the real determiners of the presidential election, states with more people have more electoral votes, and popular votes do not affect anything. Many politicians, people, etc. have gave their opinions on how to change the electoral college but the best way is to have popular carry significance and to allow each electoral voters to vote individually instead of losing their vote to majority. This way, choosing the president can be improved

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These scenarios not only blatantly imply an obvious flaw in the voting system, but also demonstrate that the candidate who won the Electoral College and not the popular vote strictly misrepresent the political opinion of majority of the population. Five times in US history, a presidential candidate won presidency solely because of the Electoral College. In contrast, it should be duly noted that the presidency is the only office in the US where the candidate with the most votes does not win the election (Boxer, 2017). For governors, legislators, senators, and other political positions, the candidate who wins the most votes from the citizens or electing body ultimately wins their election, or in some cases, reelection. Therefore, the Electoral

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