Abolish the Electoral College Everyone has their own opinion on the United States’ way of election and its electoral college. The Electoral College is the process that the founding fathers established in the Constitution to elect the President. It is a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. This election process is made up of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. This Electoral College has caused conflict between the U.S. government and its citizens in the past, and it should be abolished by the United States (“What is the Electoral College?” n.d.). One big thing about the United States is how much it is for its people. A saying that is often heard within the United States is “for the people”. The Electoral College, however, ignores the will of the people. There are approximately 200 million registered voters in the United States, but only 538 people decide who will be the next president (Goldmacher, Shafer, Jacobs, Latimer, & Weise, 2016). The ratio of that is approximately 269:100,000,000, which is not very good. If the Unites States did not ignore the will of the people, then the President would get elected by a popular vote. There are multiple cases where a Presidential candidate won the popular vote but was not elected president. The most recent case was the last Presidential election. Hillary Clinton received about 1 million more votes than Donald Trump in the popular vote, but Donald Trump received more electoral votes and was elected President. This has happened in the elections of John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden, Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland, and George W. Bush over Al Gore. When this situation occurs, voters sometimes get angry because they believe that who they voted for should win if they receive the most popular votes. There is also the possibility of a tie vote between the candidates, and the rules of the Electoral College system for dealing with such a problem are bizarre and creates a scenario where no one
For as long as American citizens can remember the assigned method of election for the United States presidency would be the use of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a process not a place or institution, in this essay I will briefly describe the Electoral College process as well as describe some pros and cons of the electoral college and lastly, I will attempt to answer the controversial question, if you could improve the electoral college, would I choose to abolish or reform the system?
First off, what is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is the process put in place by our Founding Fathers in which America votes for its President and Vice President every four years. The Electoral College was put in place to help prevent abuse of power and corruption by having a separation of government. The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state based on how many Senate and House of Representative delegates that state has. These numbers range from 3 to 54 with the total number of electors being 538. This system has taken much scrutiny over time. According to Lenz and Holman, “The Electoral College may be the least-known and most misunderstood government institution in the American political system.”
The Electoral College has been instituted since 1787 and is a group of people that elect the United State President and Vice President. The United States citizens do not directly vote for the president, but their vote is considered by electors that have pledged to vote for the winning candidate. There are 538 electors which corresponds with the 100 senators and the 435 representatives plus 3 electors for the District of Columbia. An elector is nominated or appointed by their state’s party and are usually well connected. Congressmen and high ranking U.S. officials are prohibited from being electors. In most states they follow a “Winner takes all” format, where the elector votes for the candidate who wins the popular vote. The Electoral College systems is outdated and illogical for the present and should be abolished.
The voting process in America appears straightforward, but it is a very complex, complicated system. The Electoral College is America’s current voting system. The Electoral College still serves its intended purpose, but with increasing political activity among Americans it has caused a need to reform this process. Research suggests that the Electoral College system should be amended because it poorly illustrates democracy, is outdated and the majority of Americans are in favor of abolishing the system.
Not all systems are perfect, nor is the Electoral College. As we seen in the 2016 presidential election, the popular vote may not necessarily get the majority in the Electoral College resulting in what is criticized not to be as democratic when the popular vote winner, Hillary Clinton in this case, was the loser of the election. The outcome of the election can be dictated by the electors and in some cases not reflect the will of the people. Also, the winner-take-all clause creates a possibility that the popular vote gets nothing even in a situation when is it very close to half the votes. All states except for
At the end of every president’s term, a new president is voted on by the citizens in the United States. Each state can cast a vote on a presidential candidate for each senator and representative that they have in Congress. Through this process a new president is picked every four to eight years. This process is called the electoral college. The process of electoral college has been established and has been continuing since the approval of the Constitution. Even a century later after being created, the electoral college is still used today. Born out of the Constitution, the Electoral College is still obsolete; it should be abolished. Regardless, eliminating the Electoral College will likely never happen because of political parties.
American voters do not directly vote for the President. When voters go to vote on Election Day to select who they think the next president should be, we are not actually voting for a candidate directly. We are casting our support for a candidate and a group of “electors” who directly submit the votes to determine who the next president will be. (Green) We, as people, do have a right to vote for our president directly, and we are. Members of the electoral college have to be elected and this happens once voters cast their vote for a candidate for president. These are not random people, we elected them. We need to look further into the issue to see that there is a reason for the Electoral College. We need to see the method to the Electoral College’s madness. This is why although some say the electoral college is unfair and corrupt, it
First of all, the Electoral College ignores what most citizens want and undervalues their votes. Because people in each state are voting for electors that are assigned to each party rather than the actual candidates, the decision for president is really up to 538 electors instead of the population of more than 300 million Americans (The Electoral College: Top 3 Pros and Cons). 48 states use a winner-take-all system, where the dominant candidate in each state gains control of all the electors. The only states that don’t use this system are Maine and Nebraska ( ). This system the election about winning states in order to gain electors, and not about each citizen's individual vote. It’s so focused on winning overall states that it completely neglects the popular vote. It is mathematically possible under the Electoral College system that a candidate can win only 21.8% of the popular vote and still win the presidency.. This is due to the fact that the 39 smaller states have too many electoral votes for their population, and because of the winner-take-all system in every state except Nebraska and Maine, all a candidate needs to do is win 50.01% of the popular votes in those states, and he/she can clinch the election (Why We Should Abolish the Electoral College). Events similar to this have happened in history where the candidate who received more popular votes didn’t win the election. For example, in 1876
The article, “Electoral College: An Overview,” written by Ballaro, Beverly, Bourassa, and Cheryl, explains how the electoral college is used and why people do not support it. This article targets anyone who is able to vote in the 2016 election. The purpose of this article is to inform voters that their vote does not always choose the president and explains how the president is chosen and the system behind it. The thesis of this article explains that many people abroad are still unaware that the president is not elected directly by the people. The president is chosen by the electoral college. The electoral college is a body of electors chosen to elect the president and vice president of the united states. This setup allows the chance for an
Everyone knows that coming up soon this November is the election that will elect the President, Vice President, and other positions for the government. The process to getting elected can be difficult and confusing. People first need to get nominated, then they need to start their campaign with a platform, slogan etc., next they need to win people’s support and get them to vote and they also need to get the electoral college to vote for them. The electoral college is the group of people elected from each state that vote using the amount of votes that the state has (based on the population). Some people believe that the electoral college should not be used because it does not always vote for what the majority of the state is voting for, which
The Electoral College should not be abolished because most voters actually still are not informed today. How would you feel if a crazy president was decided because of all those uninformed voters who vote for the wrong person? Just imagine what could happen to yourself and the rest of America! The Electoral College also should not be abolished because it helps preserve our federalist government. It is proven that the Electoral College helps preserve our federalist government because it lets some of the smaller states count in elections too. The states can now actually make a difference in the outcome of the election. People do say that Electoral
The Electoral College what can I say to be honest, I know nothing about the Electoral College, but I will do my best to explain it to people who might know and to help them know so when they 're seventeen they know like I should. So the Google definition of the Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who cast votes in the election of the President and Vice President. I would have not given that explanation, it would have told you it is a College. So helping you and myself, I will first explain how it works, then how Electors are selected, and the qualifications to be one and their restriction on who the Electors can vote for. Then the Election 1800 and the 12th Amendment. Then I will explain times where
The electoral college system is unnecessary at this point in time. When the electoral college system was thought up in the 1700s by the framers of the constitution, they believed that electors to represent the peoples’ vote would be more efficient since it was extremely difficult to get information to and from places quickly, meaning that citizens would be late on news. To to combat that, the framers created the electoral college system, a system where electors elected by a political party would represent the peoples’ vote, gather in Washington, and vote on their behalf. Because of the lack of technology, this method wasn’t a bad way to vote for presidents efficiently. But technology improved, negating the problem of Americans not knowing the news in Washington and concerning their candidates. Today, Americans have access to current and reliable news regarding their candidates and are generally up-to-date with politics. So with the technological advances present today, why do we still employ an electoral college to vote for our next president? There isn’t a pressing reason to keep it.
The United States, well known for its democracy, holds elections every four years to elect its President. Every American citizen over the age of 18 has a right to cast a vote in the presidential election. The voting process, although it seems easy and straightforward, can be very complicated. In the 2000 election, Al Gore captured the majority of votes, but George Bush won. The reason for this strange outcome and why Al Gore lost was because of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is voting system where different states are given a certain amount of votes in the election, and which ever candidate wins a state, is given that state’s votes. The Electoral College is out of date, and should be replaced by the Popular Vote system,
Voting for a president makes us feel like we actually have a part in our government, but what if that wasn't true. Abolishing the Electoral college is necessary for our government to be fair. How is it possible that a candidate can win with the majority of the people disliking him? At the beginning of our government, we strived for equality, that is why small states were given the same representation as large states. The difference in populations is colossal. The largest state California with a total population of 39.25 million (2016) while the smallest state