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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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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. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.) The electors chosen are usually party leaders, state-elected officials, or people with a strong affiliation with the presidential candidate. Forty-eight states currently have a winner-take-all system. This means that whichever candidate …show more content…

The only states that do not follow this system are Nebraska and Maine. These states follow the Congressional District Method. In this method, the candidate with the most votes automatically gets two electoral votes. The remaining votes are allocated congressional district by congressional district. The popular election is held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in the month of November. Meanwhile, the meeting of electors for the Electoral College is held on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The electors meet in their own states where they will cast their ballots for who they choose for president and vice-president. Their votes are then sent to be counted by a joint session of Congress on January 6th. The President of the Senate then announces the voting results. The winner of the election is then sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th of the same year. ("U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College?" National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. …show more content…

The way the system is set up, it allows for someone to lose the popular vote, the vote of the people, and win the Electoral College and the presidency. With this being said, it almost seems like a lapse of freedom. What’s the point of voting for a president if your vote doesn’t really matter? In 56 presidential elections, 4 presidents have been elected because they only won the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. This means that over seven percent of the time, the American people have gotten a president that the majority did not want. The 2000 election is the most recent example of this. Al Gore actually won the popular vote but lost the presidency because of the voting distribution in the Electoral College. (10/16/12, By Eric Black |, and By Eric Black | 10/15/12. "10 Reasons Why the Electoral College Is a Problem." MinnPost. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web.) It is also possible for the chosen electors to not vote for the candidate who won the popular vote. This means that the electors can vote against their states interest. However, some states, not all, do have laws on the books to prevent exactly this. Another issue in the

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