ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

450 Words2 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. The citizens votes or “popular votes” don’t actually directly elect the leaders of the country. The citizens votes elects the 538 members of a group called the electoral college. Then the electoral college elects the president and vice president that has the most or majority of the votes. The electoral college was devised by the framers of the United States Constitution to provide a method that was feasible, desirable, and consistent with a form of Republican form of government. A faithless elector is someone who votes for a candidate other than the one who he is pledged make the electoral college outmoded and undesirable.
Does your vote really count? When you vote for …show more content…

One pro is that it Requires a distribution of popular support to be elected president. Another pro is it enhances the political stability of the nation by promoting a two-party system. The last pro that I am going to say is, it maintains the federal system of government and representation. Some cons to the Electoral College is, there are possibilities of electing a minority president. A minority president is, a president who has been elected by the largest number of votes cast but not by a majority of the electorate. Some more cons to the Electoral College are, there’s a risk of having faithless electors, the electoral college may depress voter turnout and, it does not accurately reflect the national popular will because it does not elect a candidate by a direct popular

Show More
Related
955 Words | 4 Pages

Sophie Goldenberg Honors Civics Electoral College DBQ Should the Electoral College be Repealed or Remain as is? On every first Tuesday in November of every fourth year, many Americans go to the polls to vote for their favorite candidate. Little do they know that they are actually voting for electors who then go vote for the president. This process is called the Electoral College.

Read More
564 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
364 Words | 2 Pages

The Framers of the Constitution created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the President directly by popular vote and having Congress choose the President. At the time, there were concerns about electing the President directly, such as the lack of communication and travel infrastructure to facilitate a national election and the possibility of uneducated voters being easily swayed by popular demagogues. Additionally, the Framers were concerned that smaller states would be overshadowed by larger ones in a direct popular vote. The Electoral College has several pros and cons.

Read More
258 Words | 2 Pages

In my own words some of the pros and cons of the Electoral College are as followed and explained. My pros are that it maintains the federalist system, and allows for minority interests to be represented. It helps maintain the federalist system by keeping all of the branches of government equal. It helps allow for minority interests to be represented by helping the interest and have the ability to be represented and backed up by bigger parties to help get votes. My cons of the Electoral College are that is does not reflect the popular vote, and lowers voter turnout.

Read More
606 Words | 3 Pages

It gives the smaller states a voice, that could have been ignored if the popular vote only counted. The Electoral College helps the candidates and their party keep their campaign organized, if the they know the amount of votes they are looking for they can organize how much time they spend campaigning in each state (Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College). Also helps keep a sense of stability, but setting up a 2 party system of voting, and also gives the states to make their own laws on voting and being able to make amendments accordingly (Advantages and Disadvantages of Electoral College). The Electoral College also helps avoid the chance of fraud occurring or national recounts (Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electoral College). Even though the system has many advantages it also has many disadvantages as

Read More
816 Words | 4 Pages

There are several arguments both for and against whether or not the Electoral College should still be used today. Some of the key arguments against the Electoral College are as follows: the possibility of electing a minority president, the risk of faithless Electors, and that the Electoral College upholds the two party system. The arguments in support of the Electoral College are as follows: it contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president, it enhances the status of minority interests, and it maintains a federal system of government and

Read More
580 Words | 3 Pages

The third reason the Electoral College should continue to be used, is that it reduces problems such as fraud, recounts, lawsuits, and runoff elections. Because of the structure of the Electoral College, fraud becomes isolated and more difficult to attempt. It reduces recounts and lawsuits as it sets a threshold for a candidate to win and makes the winner apparent at the end. Also, by setting a threshold, it can eliminate runoff elections. In 227 years, the winner of the popular vote has lost only five times, which shows that the electoral college is working.

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College is a system of voting created by the writers of the Constitution. The main goal of the Electoral College was to ensure that the citizens of the United States could not elect the president directly. The writers of the Constitution believed that the voters would not be properly educated on who they were voting for and consequently make a poor choice. The Electoral College is no longer in need today given that the public is adequately educated on the candidates for elections as a result of the excess amount of communication today. The Electoral College should be abolished because small states are over represented, the system is unfair to third party candidates, and a tie leads to a vote in the House of Representatives.

Read More
1206 Words | 5 Pages

When you go and vote for president, do you think your vote goes toward the decision of who becomes president? If you do, think again because the system is not as clear cut as it seems. In 1787 during the Constitutional Convention, the delegates discussed a way to vote for president without having the passions of the people and average voters getting in the way. The Electoral College has 538 members total which are divided among states, with each state receiving the amount of electoral votes that corresponds with their population. The outdated system known as the Electoral College, should officially be abolished from the process of the presidential election in the United States.

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

they are called a faithless elector. There is a total of 538 electoral votes, and to win the presidency the presidential candidate needs the majority or 270 votes to win. If the presidential candidate does not secure the majority, the House of Representatives will then vote on who becomes

Read More
644 Words | 3 Pages

The Electoral College exists, according to the Federalist Papers, in order to account for the opportunity of the tyranny of the majority or factions. It gives us the responsibility of choosing the President and members that are the best for us that prevents from bias opinions on who is chosen. The reason that the Constitution calls for this extra layer, rather than just providing for the direct election of the president, is that it will harm us a whole. James Madison worried about what he called "factions.” Until today, we are afraid of what Madison called, "the tyranny of the majority" – was that a faction could overgrow 50% of our population, at which point could sacrifice the rights of other citizens.

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

You are just voting for electoral college members to vote for who you want for president. The electoral college votes matter unlike the citizens. They make the choice for the state in which you live in for who your state wants for president. They have the final say in who is going to be president. Should the electoral college be abolished?

Read More
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

Read More
845 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College was put into the character for some elemental and very straightforward reasoning which are still applicable and important today. Our country was founded as a commonwealth, and along with having a king, the idea of a 'democracy ' was pretty much a apprehension to our founding fathers. their concept of a representative commonwealth in which people of high aspect and in good continuing would be elected to point in association and so on was established in the acceptance that these good men would do what was right without concern to amount and or personal or economical achievement. Forward the way, of development, much of that has dissipate, and the circumstances nation and economical advisability have come to leading a

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

The Electoral College is the process to which the United States elects the President, and the Vice President. The founders of the Constitution came up with this process. This was done to give additional power to the small states, and it was done to satisfy them. It works by the citizens of the United States electing representatives called electors. Each state is given the same amount of electors, as they are members of congress.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

Related Topics

Open Document