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The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

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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

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However, many states make a requirement for the electors to vote for the candidate with the most votes of that state. The Electoral College was originally created to prevent the people of the United States from having too much power. Mainly because the creators of the Constitution, were very wary of any one group acquiring too much power. Also, at the time of the creation of the Constitution, it was almost impossible for citizens to be able to go and cast

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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