ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1607 Words7 Pages

In November of 2012, Donald Trump would tweet arguably one of the most ironically true statements he has ever articulated: “The electoral college is a disaster for democracy!” Although he didn’t know it then, Donald Trump’s position on the Electoral College would soon change. Following election day in November of 2016, Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States despite losing the general election to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes. He did, however, win the Electoral College by 74 votes; winning with a system he had once looked at with disdain. Trump’s presidential victory has reignited debate over whether the country should continue to utilize the Electoral College. This vexing system is not an easy one to change and erasing it completely from our political system has complex and serious consequences. To add to the …show more content…

This way, electors are still awarded, and a candidate still must reach 270 to win the presidency. However, these electors are not won on a winner-take-all basis. Instead, they’re awarded by Congressional district. The idea is that in a solidly red or solidly blue state, there are huge pockets of voters in the minority party who make up entire districts but who never have a say in the election result. Recent data from the Office of the Federal Register reported that in 2012, over 3 million Texans voted Democratic, and almost 5 million Californians voted Republican. This system would give these pockets of voters a voice, as districts would become candidates’ target rather than states. A Republican would normally ignore a state like Maine because it’s firmly Democratic and know that would have no chance of winning it. With the congressional district method, however, they can visit a district that leans Republican and appeal to those voters, therefore not ignoring the voices of millions just because those voices are in the state’s

Show More
Related

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

511 Words | 3 Pages

There are many proposed plans to run the government and decide the next president. Ideas including the District Plan, the Proportional Plan, the Direct Popular Election, the National Bonus Plan, and the National Popular Vote plan are in mind to fix the current system yet none have been decided. Currently, the president is decided by a method known as the Electoral College; however, this method has many disadvantages. In the United States today, the government runs a system known as the Electoral College.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

351 Words | 2 Pages

The United States government is one of the most admired and complex in the world, On the contrary one of the fundamental components that has an extensive impression on the American People and the Election is the Electoral College. Our founding fathers created The Electoral College over two hundred years ago, and it is still in effect today. They feared that having just the Popular Vote would give too much power to one person. In this paper, we will be discussing what the Electoral College is, the benefits and disadvantages of the Electoral College as well as if the Electoral College should be abolished or reconstructed.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

171 Words | 1 Pages

It seems as though the government wanted every other form of electing a president to fail, because they just continued to go to the next solution without trying to understand the problem and fixing it. It almost seems as if win the electoral college came into the play they just knew that it would work somehow because they kept trying at it until it worked. The article How the Electoral College System Works states that “the Electoral college system almost never functioned as they intended, but, prescribed only the system’s basic elements, leaving ample room for development.” To sum up my beliefs on the topic, I believe as though the government should get rid of the Electoral College because it’s a scam on America.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

450 Words | 2 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.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

514 Words | 3 Pages

“Electors aren’t officially picked until election day. When voters go to the polls, they’re actually casting ballots for their party’s slate of electors, rather than a presidential candidate. And the statewide popular-vote winner determines which party sends its slate to the Electoral College.” (Cheney) What this statement means is that voters, they are choosing which party and presidential candidate they favor, but their vote actually goes out to the Electoral College.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1334 Words | 6 Pages

Each congressional district in a state would decide an electoral vote, and the remaining two electoral votes would go to the winner of the popular vote in each state. However, the congressional district voting plan is susceptible to gerrymandering. The Oxford English Dictionary defines gerrymandering as manipulating a state or constituency in order to gain an unfair advantage (“Gerrymandering”). This means districts could be redrawn to favor one political party over another.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1684 Words | 7 Pages

It was conceived in part as a firewall against majority will in case the mob ever elected someone grotesquely unqualified for the office. ”[3]But this is just one of many problems with the Electoral College, which a major problem being the fact of the Electoral College: It’s a winner-take-all system. a “feature that defines the character of American presidential elections. ”[4] Another one of these problems involves how some peoples votes are better than others, I found that a YouTuber by the name of CGP Grey put it the best, “If these votes were split evenly across the population, every 574,000 people would be represented by one

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1238 Words | 5 Pages

The Electoral College is a method that was established by the Founding Fathers of the United States within the Constitution. The Electoral College has been the subject of more proposed amendments than any other provision of the U.S. Constitution (Richie and Levien 353). The Founding Fathers did not intend for the Electoral College to be a perfect democratic system, but James Madison, strongly opposed winner-take-all laws. The Electoral College is a vital part of Federalism, which is the foundation of the system of government and without it no candidate would be likely to receive a majority (Bond and Smith 343-352). Though, there are many downfalls to the Electoral College.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

193 Words | 1 Pages

There are many different opinions on whether the electoral college is outdated: People say there is no point for it being there anymore or there is still good uses for it. But despite opinions, the electoral should stay as it is because it allows an equal voting system. For example, To win a presidency they would need 270 electoral votes. The states also get one elector per state. As shown on the picture above, Wisconsin receives 10 votes-other states vary.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1001 Words | 5 Pages

Americans in schools, on TV and in newspapers, workers and the oppressed are constantly reminded how lucky they are to live in the “freest, most democratic nation on Earth.” Despite this their electorate system continues to fail them, continues to viciously deny millions of people a strong voice in elections,continues to distort the one-person, one-vote principle on which democracy stands. The American Electorate Collage does not belong in a country that is often perceived to be the greatest in the world, the system is inexcusably undemocratic. The electoral college is, essentially a constitutional relic of a fundamentally different nation, a leftover from a bygone era in which the founding fathers specifically did not want a nationwide vote of the American people to

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

820 Words | 4 Pages

For example Puerto Rico has an estimated population of 4.4 million, but since Puerto Rico has no constitutional amendment to recognize them they are not allowed to vote even though, Puerto Rico is part of the United States territory and the people of Puerto Rico have US citizenships. If US citizens move to a foreign they are still allowed to vote by sending a post card with their vote to the last state they resigned from even US astronauts are allowed to vote from all the way from space making the US territories the only places that are not allowed to vote. Another argument would be that all votes aren't equal because the “electoral college makes some votes more equal than others” which gives the small states and states with low population more electoral votes then they should have.(Grey) If the population were divided by the number of electoral college votes every 574,000 people would be represent by one electoral vote, but since the electoral votes are distributed by state not people there are consequences that arise. Some of the larger states are ripped from their votes while the smaller states are given more votes do to the minimum 3 vote rule. With that being said the electoral college “pretend that few people live were they do and more people live where they don’t” giving states like California and Texas less votes then they deserve.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1670 Words | 7 Pages

“America’s election systems have operated smoothly for more than 200 years because the Electoral College accomplishes its intended purposes. America’s presidential election process preserves federalism, prevents chaos, grants definitive electoral outcomes, and prevents tyrannical or unreasonable rule. The Founding Fathers created a stable, well-planned, and carefully designed system—and it works.” This was written by Tara Ross in a Heritage Foundation memorandum (Stepman). The electoral college is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.

Read More

Electoral College Should Be Abolished Essay

1104 Words | 5 Pages

The United States democratic political system serves to pursue practices that are quite undemocratic. The flawed principles consist of an abundance of issues with a major one being the electoral college. This controversial practice is a heated argument amongst politicians and everyday civilians. The real question is however, is the system in place the prime resolution to maintain a democracy in which the people’s vote actually count? The Electoral College should be abolished with the amount of complications instilled in it and be replaced by a popular vote implementation in order to have a healthy and equal democracy.

Read More

Dbq Essay On The Electoral College

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

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

Open Document