...The Electoral College and the Popular vote have been a part of U.S. history since the founding of our country itself even though the actually process of both systems have changed since the late 1700’s and early 1800’s when they were first implemented. The debate on these two-unique systems have been brought to light due to the recent 2016 Presidential Election between the Presidential Candidates, Senator Hilary Clinton(D) and Donald Trump(R), when Donald Trump(R) won the 2016 Presidential Election by winning the Electoral College vote, even though he lost the popular vote. The purpose of this essay is to explain both voting systems and explain both in the best and most detail possible, as well as my personal opinion on the two, and if the current...
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...past 20 years, by the popular vote. Additionally, if you are a Republican in Maryland, because Maryland is predominantly a Democratic state, your vote would not matter in the majority of elections. Be it resolved that the United States presidential election be decided by the electoral college. (Pause…) We support this resolution on these four contentions. First, rural areas are constantly ignored by the electoral college and secondly, the electoral college fails to represent the national will. Also, the distribution of the electoral college votes per state is not equally dispersed. (Pause…) Lastly, the electoral college depresses the voter turnout. Be it. Resolved that the general population determines who wins the national election, not the electoral college. (Pause…)...
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...The electoral college plays such a huge role in deciding who will become president, but most of the general population doesn't know that the popular vote does not determine who will be president. Confusing to some that the candidate that most people want does not become president, but that the person who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes first becomes president. For example, this can be seen in the 2016 presidential election when Clinton won the popular vote, but only received 227 in electoral votes compared to Trump’s 304 in electoral votes thus allowing for Trump to win.While many people have their own opinion about the electoral college and how it plays into choosing the president, I believe that it should not be solely the electoral...
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...citizens to vote for the next person who they want to run the United States. There are two ways in which United States citizens can vote for a president, either by popular vote, or electoral college vote. The next president of the United States is the candidate who “...wins 270 electoral college votes…”, but most people believe that the next president should be the candidate who wins the popular vote. Presidential elections like the 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 elections shows that candidates are able to become president if they win enough electoral college vote, but they don’t win the popular vote. The current Electoral College vote doesn’t show the true feelings of United...
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...The Electoral College Should be Abolished. The Constitutional Convention new the leader of the must be chosen in an informed process that would consider the wishes of every citizen without giving one too much power to any one group. The delegates think the president and vice president should be chosen by a direct popular vote of the people. They did not trust the voters have enough information to make a good choice. But is the system they put in place better? I think not, their system has a lot of flukes. The electoral college violates political equality (Doc D), it favors some citizens over others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their vote for president. only need 11 of the biggest states to win the election, popular vote can get overlooked because the electoral vote is what counts....
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...The Electoral College is one of my favorite topics in government. As a kid, I always thought that citizens casted votes for candidates and whichever candidate received the most votes won, kind of like the student body in school. Imagine trying to explain to a bunch of middle schoolers that the 6th grade got 5 electoral votes, the 7th grade got 7 electoral votes and the 8th grade got 9 electoral votes and it was because of each class’s size. I don’t think that would have been received well in the 6th grade. Contrary to popular belief, the President of the United States is not elected by popular vote. That is, the candidate that receives the most votes wins the popular vote. That does not necessarily mean that is the winner of the election though. The President of the United States is elected by the Electoral College. This process...
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...The electoral college and the election go hand in hand. The electoral college is put into place to elect the president and vice president during the election process. There is debate on whether the voting system should change to a popular vote, a first past the post vote or continue with the electoral college process. The electoral college is a barrier to direct democracy.The electoral college delegates are actually the ones who elect the president. When Americans vote in the presidential election, they are in fact voting for who they want the presidential electors to vote for. Each state has a certain amount of electoral votes based the population of the state, and the votes are equal to the number of senators, and member of the House of Representatives in a state. An example of this is from the website...
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...Electoral College is it really the best option? Most People would argue that the Electoral College is a good thing and that it “saves us from ourselves” but what good has it really done ? Sure , it's nice to think that if our nation were to try and elect someone totally unqualified for the office that the Electoral College would step in and fix our mistake but when has that ever been the case. The only examples i can give of the Electoral College doing anything is them electing people that the popular vote goes against. The most recent example is the Trump vs Clinton election. Hillary should have won the election based off of popular vote but she didn’t. Somehow trump won the presidency. Now i’m not complaining I wanted trump to win but...
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...The Electoral College was created for the purpose of making the little guys seem important, therefore making the number of Electoral College votes per state unequally dispersed. If the amount of Electoral College votes a state received was based on population, smaller states would not be relevant. While this dispersion method made our small states happy, it produced many a consequences and made the value of each person’s vote different. Each individual vote in California counts for about five times as much in the Electoral College as each individual vote in Maine. For instance, California has fifty-five electoral votes for a population of about 38.8 million people and maine has four electoral votes for a population of almost 1.33 million. California...
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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 is an institution that every four years is in charge of electing our President, and Vice President. Going as far back as elementary school, students are brought up on how the electoral college works and why its not just the right, but fair system. From being taught about when the Founding Fathers created the process in seventeen eightyseven, to certain founders such as James Madison arguing that the process would hurt the south thus creating the three fifths compromise. As students we learned it all, especially about the prior agreement that was set by southern slave states allowing those states to count thier slaves as votes. After passing a bill that would give Southern States the majority in the electoral votes, the...
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...difficulty passing bills Primary reason: president is an integral part of the legislative process Appoint federal justices and government employees (e.g. heads of CIA and Federal Reserve) Enforce laws executive orders Order of the president without Congressional approval that has the force of law Only operates within the framework of an existing piece of legislation or constitutional power Order based on a certain interpretation Example: Harry Truman integrates the armed forces Ends segregation of blacks and whites in the army Issue pardons Electoral college There are two electoral colleges Electoral college & the House Same thing in Britain Candidates compete to win individual states (national popular vote not important) Each state is worth a certain number of voters (bigger states are worth more) Race to 270 votes – a candidate must win a majority of electoral votes – 270 is the magic number out of 538 total votes – if...
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...argument, dissonance, lack of harmony, heated conflict Controversy- Denotation v. connotation Denotation = meaning The most direct, exact, specific meaning of a work or expression Literal meaning- meaning without interpretation, embellishment, or exaggeration A dictionary definition. Subjective and “cold” Connotation = suggestion Emotional coloration Suggested or implied meaning in addition to what is explicit, objected, denoted Impression that goes beyond a defined meaning Emotional association with a word, phrase, idea Subjective and emotively “loaded” September 17 Democracy- people, common people. People’s rule. Types of democracy Direct- when all members of a community (polity, group) gather together and individuals cast a vote or make decisions=each person is given a chance to influence the policymaking process Representative- when one person or a group of people are elected and assigned with the task of making decisions on behalf of the group of citizens (“constituency”) that they represent Voters- demos – choose (elect) representatives for a public office through the act of voting Voting = a formal expression of preference for a candidate that is made known through a marked ballot We assume that we as...
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...superior over the other two. The three branches that are based on the principle of separated institutions sharing power are the legislative, executive and judicial. Each branch has powers that it can use to check and balance the operations and power of the other two branches (Kelly, 2013, para. 1). What makes this system effective is that each branch must be willing to compromise to ensure the American people needs are put first and the safety and security of the nation is constantly being enforced. For instance in an attempt to limit the power that each branch could have over the other two, Congress which is divided into two houses provides a check on each other. The President can reject legislation, but he can be overruled by a two-thirds popular vote in both houses. The judiciary can lay out laws considered undemocratic (Powell, 1996). Therefore it becomes crucial that all parties involved learn to work together and put their difference aside...
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...With any U.S. president there are going to be achievements and also controversies. The last two presidents the United States have elected into office have had to deal with major national crisis as well of the other burdens and responsibilities of being president. Each president has had very defining events and decisions of their presidency that they will be remembered for and that have made lasting changes for the United States. In 2001 George W. Bush became one of the few U.S presidents to win the Electoral College vote, but lose the National popular vote. He lost the National popular vote by more then half a million voters. Most people believe if you win the National popular vote you win Electoral College vote, and in most cases that does happen but for the first since Benjamin Harris’ presidency Bush won with 271 electoral votes. He needed 270 to win. In his first State of the Union address in 2001, he vowed to end racial profiling. In 2003 although not completely affective or airtight he issued an order to about seventy law enforcement agencies calling for an end to racial and ethnic profiling. This was the first ban of its kind. One of Bushes first policy decisions was on the matter of abortion. He decided to reinstate the ban on aid to international groups performing or counseling on abortion. Former President Ronald Reagan originally initiated the ban, which was a controversial political matter that was in and out of affect for over 25 years. The ban was rescinded during...
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