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Electoral College Cons

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The United States is considered to have the world's greatest democracy, however, every four years when Americans go to the voting polls to select a presidential candidate, the controversy of our voting system arises. The United States voting system consists of many components and is referred to as Electoral College. The Electoral College has remained in place for the past two centuries after our founding fathers created it. Fundamentally, the Electoral College consists of 538 electors. This specific number is made up of 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 electors from the District of Columbia, who are responsible to vote for a specific presidential candidate. According to the 23rd Amendment, the District of Columbia is referred to as …show more content…

The presidential candidate who receives the majority of electoral votes, which is 270 out of 538, wins the presidency. Many American's are surprised to learn that when they step into a ballot box and vote for a specific candidate, they are essentially voting for an elector appointed by states, not the actual presidential candidate. These electors cast a vote for the presidential candidate that the voters have supported. The purpose of the Electoral College is to provide a sense of stability for electing a chief executive, however, this system has been the subject of criticism for many years, as it has occasionally maligned. Many critics have attempted to reform the system, especially when apparent discrepancies occurred after the election results.
Similar to any other bureaucratic system, the Electoral College has multiple pros and cons. The entirety of the Electoral College is based on fairness, as “The Founding Fathers enshrined the Electoral College in the US Constitution because they thought it was the best method to choose the president” …show more content…

Although it seems otherwise, it is important to remember that the population of this nation is foremost and the political agendas should not be employed unless supported by the nation’s people. Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States and the fifth president to enter office, even though he lost the national popular vote. The only way the people’s choice will prevail in the presidential elections is to employ a popular vote. Essentially, abolishing the Electoral College system is the most effective and efficient way to enact change. According to sources, “By overwhelming majorities, Americans would prefer to elect the president by direct popular vote, not filtered through the antiquated mechanism of the Electoral College” (Vespa, 2016). The Electoral College system is obviously faulty, “Because almost all states use a winner-take-all system, the election ends up being fought in just a dozen or so “battleground” states, leaving tens of millions of Americans on the sidelines” (Vesper, 2016). According to Stanford professors, the national popular vote is much more beneficial for choosing presidents compared to the Electoral College system thus, needs to be abolished. Stanford professors claim that, “Four out of five Americans exercised no real electoral voice in the 2012 presidential election due to the winner-take-all

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