...The electoral college is a system that directly choose the president and vice president.The electoral college is first created by the delegates to avoid the abusive rule of king George.The electors are decided by how many representative one state have and an equal amount of 2 senate per state.Then if there is no one gets the majority electoral votes the house of representatives will select the president from the top three contenders and each state will get one vote.The electoral college is an unfair system that citizens don’t get their votes to the right results. The electoral college shouldn’t be abolished because it does not always match the popular vote which is what the people vote.In 1876, Candidate Tilden has a popular vote of...
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...The Electoral College has been used for numerous years and that is the system America uses to select their coming president. But should it be used to this day? The reason the Electoral College was first implemented was to avoid having uninformed people making decisions as a result of news traveling extremely slow years ago. However, nowadays, news is delivered within a matter of seconds on our smartphones. So, there surely isn’t a reason as to why America still needs the Electoral College, is there? The answer is no, and there’s a plethora of reason as to why. Three primary reasons to why the Electoral College should be abolished is that it’s undemocratic, it hurts the third party candidates, and it causes the small states to be over represented. One prime motive as to why the Electoral...
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...Electoral College process Institutional affiliation Date How the Electoral College works The Electoral College is a process which was put in place in order to allow a nationwide system of fairness after selecting leaders. For instance, this process works with the fact that the results of the popular vote are not guaranteed to stand as the presidential election is usually decided by this system. Under this process, if you cast your vote for the president, you also vote for an often un-named elector who will cast a ballot in a separate election that eventually chooses the president. The main pros and cons in the debate about whether to keep or abolish the current Electoral College process. There are certain pros and cons in the debate about whether to keep or abolish the current Electoral College process. For instance, the Electoral College has hampered the democracy of United States in a manner inconsistent with current American practices. Taking for example, all voters are not given equal opportunities under the Electoral College (Bates, 2004). Even though the Electoral College inflates the victories of the winners, such as establishing their legitimacy, these victories do not give presidents liberated ride in Congress, where their party may be in the minority or the politicians may not think that Electoral College landslide should be treated the same as a genuine popular majority landslide (Yale University Press, 2004). Taking for example, President Ronald Reagan won...
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...In the United States, the Electoral College is used to elect the President of the United States. However, people oppose it since the United States has dramatically changed throughout the years. Some demand popular vote, since it represents more of a direct democracy rather than a representative republic. Meanwhile, there are those who still desire the Electoral College due to the Constitution. There are at least three reasons why the Constitution shouldn’t be changed to abolish the Electoral College, which are federalism, organization, and party benefits. First of all, the Electoral College fortifies federalism. According to “The Electoral College Strengthens Federalism” by Michael M.Uhlmann, he uses Thomas Jefferson has a reference to support his perspective. “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” This quote is references to limited government and equal rights for all. It strengthens and supports states without any federal involvement. Small states receive less power than Larger states;...
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...In your initial post of at least 200-250 words, briefly summarize how the Electoral College works. Explain some of the main pros and cons in the debate about whether to keep or abolish the current Electoral College process. Also explain one proposal to change how the system works without formally abolishing it. Evaluate the various arguments and the proposal. Include at least two perspectives in your assessment: According the New York Times (2008) Electoral College 101, in America how the system works in electing our commander and chief, is generally the Electoral College was created by the founding fathers and most that doubt direct democracy because they didn’t believe that the President and Vice President should be elected directly by the people and congress. The Electoral College includes 538 electors from 50 states, and the state capital calls the electors. The electors according to the constitution are responsible for electing the President and Vice President of the United States. A majority is required of 270 to win of the 538 electoral votes is needed to elect our President. The majority of the time the electors cast their votes for candidates receiving the majority votes in that particular state. Electoral votes are primarily based on the number of senators and representatives. Article II of our constitution sets guidelines on how our President should be elected and how often it states” the president “"shall hold office during the term of four years." The season...
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...If college and the Electoral College have anything in common, it is that they both throw away the importance of what was once important. Grades have less value in college; popular votes, as in the public’s votes, have less value in the Electoral College. Nonetheless, both have a plethora of differences, a major one being that no one wants to terminate college whereas the fate of the Electoral College is hotly debated. Should the Electoral College be abolished? To conclude an answer, one should understand the functionalities of it. The Electoral College is a process, penned by the Founding Fathers hundreds of years ago, that is used to determine the United States’ President and vice-president indirectly. Each state will receive a certain amount...
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...Chapter 6 Electoral College Assignment Explain the electoral college and its purpose as presented in the videos posted in the "Lecture and Video" tab. Do you think the electoral college is effective? Why? Yes I do believe the Electoral College is effective. I think the Electoral College is one of the most elegant systems in our republic. The key word here is republic and not democracy. We are not a true democracy in the sense that we are ruled by the will of the majority, but rather we are a constitutional republic that employs democratic methods. We have systems that check and balance power between the 3 branches of government, between states and the federal government and balance between majority rule and the rights of the minority. The people who are against the Electoral College are popularists. Meaning one vote per voter and the majority wins. This I believe ignores the right of the minority. If you want to abolish the Electoral College because it misrepresents votes, than why not abolish 2 senators for each state? Wyoming has as many senators as California has. The Senate has tremendous power in the legislature as the upper house. It can start legislation or it is the final deliberating body before a piece of legislation goes to the president’s desk. But it does not equally represent all the people, it represents the states. Also, even the congress has votes that require more than 50% to pass laws. Why? If a majority agrees, majority should win...
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...Abolishing the Electoral College Outline: I. Introduction A. Background information---When Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they actually vote for presidential electors, known as the Electoral College. Under this system, each state gets electoral votes equal to the number of its senators and representatives. The number of electoral votes per state ranges from 3 to 55, for a total of 538. To win, a candidate must receive at least half, or 270. 48 states and the District of Columbia currently use “winner-take-all” system, while Maine and Nebraska adopt the district system. B. Thesis statement---Nowadays, the Electoral College betrays American values of majority rule: a candidate can win the election without a majority of popular votes; some states are overrepresented; and a large number of citizens get left out, thus, the Electoral College should be abolished. II. First point---lose vote, but win election A. Transition---why a candidate can win the election without a majority of popular votes. B. Evidence---This can create a situation which has happened four times in American history, most recently in 2000, where a candidate wins the presidential election by close margins in enough states to win the Electoral College, but loses by large margins in other states and thus gets elected with fewer popular votes than his rival, such as George W. Bush. (Abolishing the Electoral College) C. Analysis---the Electoral College was established...
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...called the Electoral College. The process of the electoral college is complex and has many components to how it works. The only power the people have over the electoral college is the ability to appoint our electors through the popular vote; however, the electors have free reign, without needing consent from the people, over who is in charge every four years. Within the Electoral College is a rich history, pros and cons, how electors are chosen, how the difference of the popular vote cause Serbian states to be swing states, and why past elections have brought up questions about if the electoral college should be amended. The original philosophy behind the electoral college is what has caused the rich history of the electoral college. Everything began in 1789 when the idea of the electoral college came to elect our very first president. The Electoral College is a system of selecting the next president by electors who vote based on the popular vote of America (U.S. Electoral College). Alexander Hamilton created the original form of the...
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...The Electoral College sharply influences presidential politics. When Americans go to the polls, their votes are counted and a winner declared. Right? – Wrong. The Electoral College still needs to cast its vote. Americans elect their President and vice president not by a national vote but by an indirect device known as the electoral college (Magleby, D. & Light, P. 2009, pg 192). The system has generated criticism and discussions about various reform proposals. The framers of the U.S Constitution devised this system as a compromise for the presidential election process. They did not trust the choice of president to a direct vote of the people. Once again we arrive at checks and balance devised to stop mob rule and corruption. At the time, some politicians believed a purely popular election was too reckless, while others objected to giving Congress the power to select the president. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution (Bonsor, K. 2000). Opponents of the Electoral College point to Bush as a reason to get rid of the current system — he was president even though he lost the popular vote. Since the distribution of electoral votes tends to over-represent people in rural states, opponents argue that the system fails to accurately reflect the popular will (Dell, K. n.d.). Several reform ideas have been...
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...The 2000 presidential election in which Al Gore won the popular votes and George W. Bush, the electoral vote, dramatized that parties care more about your vote depending upon where you live. Cuban Americans have a huge influence in national politics because of their concentration in the state of Florida. Florida is the state where the 2000 presidential election hung in the balance. The 2000 presidential election was one of the closest races in history. The original design of our federal system of government was thoroughly and wisely debated by the founding fathers and proposing a process that has been around for the last 150 years is probably more complex than any of us think. In the majority of states, the candidate having the majority of votes acquires all the electoral votes of the state. A few states hold the history of voting consistently Democrat or Republican. The system of the Electoral College offers power to the small, less populated states and traditionally those smaller states have privileged the Republican Party. I am in favor of replacing the Electoral College because currently it violates the principle of one person, one vote. "One person, one vote" or "one man, one vote" means legislative districts need to be divided according to population, so that each person (and each interest) has an equal amount of representation in government. Furthermore, the addition of two electors to each state, for its senators produces significant distortions in how much...
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...government with the power to decide who to vote. Today’s century, the United States will not allow the people to vote for president and Vice President directly, but they utilize Electoral College to represent voter’s choice. In the Constitution article 2, section 1, clause 2 it states in specific detail how many electors each state is entitled to have. The...
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...The Electoral College: The Fear of Mobocracy Katherine Kinert Olympic College, Bremerton Abstract The Electoral College is a very important part of the United States Electoral System. However, very few Americans actually understand how it works. The lack of political efficacy in this country is a large reason of why some people do not think the Electoral College should be abolished. However, as Eric Black (2012) stated in an article on PBS News Hour, “Polls for many years have reliably shown that a majority of Americans would prefer a straightforward popular vote for the presidency.” Originally the Electoral College was established to prevent majority factions from having too much power causing mobocracy to occur. However, this system is outdated and the conditions that prompted the founding fathers to institute this precaution no longer exist today. Also, the fact that almost all the states use a winner-take-all system to determine which candidate gets all of the electoral votes for the state. Will abolishing the Electoral College rid the United States from mobocracy? Introduction The Electoral College is outdated and does not follow the true spirit of American Democracy. David Stewart (2013), a lawyer in Washington, D.C., states that, “Because most people knew little about public events or leaders from distant states, the convention delegates reasoned, they would not make a wise choice between presidential candidates.” Today, people have access to information through TV...
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...In 1787, the Constitutional Convention were trying to devise a method for electing the President. This method included selecting congress, state governors, state legislators, and other high political people to represent each state and ultimately help in choosing the President. This would later be known as the Electoral College. The only people allowed to be an elector are, Representatives, Senators, and a person who holds an office of trust in the United States. According to my textbook American Democracy Now, The Electoral College by definition is “a group of people elected by voters in each state to elect the president as well as the vice president”(Harrison Harris Deardorff 3rd Edition, 285) . But looking into the historical origins of the Electoral College, I realize that there is more to it than just that....
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...To reform the U.S. electoral system, the government should eliminate the Electoral College and allow the citizens to choose the president in order to make the system more democratic. The function of the Electoral College is described in Article II Section 2 of the constitution, the constitution “does not provide that all US citizens may vote for presidential electors. Rather, it provides only that the electors shall be appointed as the state legislatures direct. Once a state determines that electors shall be chosen by popular vote it has wide latitude to determine eligibility to vote” (Hardaway 106). The electors are chosen based on the amount of House of Representatives and Senators each state has in Congress; the few hundred electors controls the United States vote (ABC News). This system is not democratic because the people are not the direct electors of the President, elite men and women of both political parties are in charge of choosing. If the system is kept that way, there is no real reason in having the eligible voters in voting because at the end of the day, their vote does not count causing various effects in the elections such as low voter turnout and lower voter efficacy.Citizens of the United States are discouraged to vote because they feel that their vote does not count since their government has established a group of people to “double-check” their preferred candidate. Why hasn’t the government abolish the Electoral College if more than 54% of the United States...
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