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Electoral College Ineffective

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In the United States there are people that support, oppose, and do not understand the system that is used to elect the president. This method is known as the Electoral College. In the Electoral College, each state has a number of votes bases on their representation in Congress. All of the state’s votes go to the candidate that wins the most votes in that state. The Electoral College is an ineffective way to elect the president of the United States. One major problem with the Electoral College is the chance of electing a candidate that has fewer total votes than their opponent. There have been a few times that this has occurred in the United States. The first time was in 1824 when John Quincy Adams won the presidential election, despite receiving …show more content…
The constant two rule is the rule that because there is equal representation in the United States Senate, each state automatically has two free electoral votes, in addition to the minimum one House of Representatives member from each state. This throws the balance of Electoral votes to population way out of proportion (Kimberling, 14). Because of this, the three smallest states (Wyoming, Vermont, and South Dakota) have a combined population of 2,003,547 people and a total of nine votes, while Colorado has a population 5,029,196 people and a total of nine votes. Therefore, Colorado has 3,025,6489 more people, but the same number of votes (Gov). The college gives more value to the votes of people in smaller states. A person’s vote in Wyoming is worth more than double a person’s vote in Colorado. The system is designed to give people equal value in their votes, but fails to do that. In this way, the college does not grant the will of the people properly. The Electoral College proves to be ineffective again in electing the President of the United …show more content…
Supporters also say that this requires a candidate to have a vice president from another region (Kimberling, 16). However, that claim has no real value. The spread out support of a candidate should not be the reason that they win. The candidate should win because they have the most overall support whether that vote be spread out or in a few specific areas. All the college is doing is creating the potential for an unwanted candidate to be named president, when they clearly do not have as many supporters as another candidate. Furthermore, even if the idea that a candidate should have spread out support was a valid reason for the college, a candidate can win the election with only 11 states (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and New Jersey) in total (Eleven). All in all, the spread out support the college requires does not make the system any more effective than a popular vote

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