Should the Electoral College be abolished? “The Electoral College in the US is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and the vice president.” The Electoral College has been the system of voting in the US since 1787, but with the growing and changing of our country, it has been a very controversial topic whether or not to keep the system in place. On five separate occasions in the history of our country, the Electoral College has voted against majority rules for the nation’s president. Many may say that this is an infringement on the rights of the people themselves to vote for their own president, because in these five instances, it truly was left to a small group of people …show more content…
This alone shows that one person’s electoral vote from any one of the smaller states, has more weight than a single persons vote from say Texas. “The Electoral College violates political equality. It is not a neutral counting device… It favors some citizens over others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their vote for president…” This quote by George C. Edwards gets the point across very clearly; the votes aren’t spread based on population, making them unfairly distributed. This gives the smaller states more of a say, and a president could easily win majority rules in the electoral votes, without even touching over half of the states. In the document analysis on document A of the DBQ packet it asks “What is the smallest number of states a candidate could win and win the Electoral College?” After doing the math, I found that the president could win the Electoral College votes in merely thirteen states, and still win by majority rules. This leaves thirty-seven states, more than a third of the states in the country, without a proper say as to who the president will
As citizens of the United State of America, one of our most important rights is that of which to vote. By voting, the general population has a say in who its leaders are. Votes for local, state, and even federal representatives directly reflect who the constituents want in office. However, America’s highest office is not elected by a vote of the people. Instead we use a confusing and outdated system called the Electoral College. Our president is not elected by the people, but by 538 electors who can legally vote for whomever they choose. Several times in our nations history an elector has voted against the people’s will. Three presidents have been elected into office by the electoral college and
What would you do if you didn't have a say in who runs America and how it is ran. What if you were promised freedom, and told that you had a government ran by the people but you didn’t get any input in the decisions? The direct popular vote doesn’t give the smaller parties a chance, but the electoral college does. Some people believe that the electoral college should be abolished; however, it gives people in rural communities a stronger voice, it allows the President a mandate to meet people’s needs in every state, and it reflects the political opinions of more Americans. Therefore, America should keep the electoral college.
To prove this claim, some states with a smaller population (the 12 states and the District of Columbia) had more electoral votes than the states with a larger population (Illinois), as stated before. This causes the power among the states to be uneven. The Founding Fathers created a system that allows the citizens to help control the government. But how can they if the Electoral College blocks all the people’s votes? The only thing standing in the way of the people having a say in their country, is the Electoral College. Therefore, the Electoral College must be
The Electoral College has become ineffective in the twenty-first century due to the advancement in technology and the progression in public education, allowing one to formulate a cultured opinion in today’s politics. Nevertheless, the decision to do so will positively affect the citizens and government relations; therefore, will cause America to become more democratic, improved country. However, if it is not abolished soon more elections, like 2000 and 2016, will occur, thus, an increased amount of distrust between the people and the government. Nevertheless, Americans are already divided and will result in new, larger problems in the future if the country’s leader is unable to bring his or her people together. Therefore, Electoral College is only causing problems in America’s democratic process rather than solutions that will only escalate from today
The result is that in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least populous jurisdictions of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the state of Florida.(Longley) Each Floridian's potential vote, then, carried about one third the weight of a potential vote in the other states listed. Shouldn't each individuals vote carry the same amount of weight regardless of where they live? Another result of the Electoral College is that it tends to give a false representation of victory. In 1980 Ronald Reagan won just 50.7 percent of the popular vote but won the electoral vote by more than 90 percent making it appear as a landslide.(Gregg) Is this fair representation for the American people to believe?
First and foremost, it grants minor states the power they need to make a difference. Instead of a popular vote, the electoral college divides it’s 538 electors amongst states by population. Moreover, to ensure this counter-idea, 3 supplementary votes are awarded to each state. This insures that states like Wyoming or Vermont are not neglected over immenser sates like Texas or California; authorizing there interests and needs to be just as significant. Hans Hassel, a politics professor, once stated the following, “The Electoral College really provides an option for people in states like Iowa to make a difference, and, as an Iowan, I think that’s important.” Likewise, when Raul Labrador was questioned about the efficiency and quality of electoral
The Electoral College was established for minority votes to be heard, otherwise largely populated cities would overrule any votes for small towns. By abolishing The Electoral College we would no longer have a Republic Nation, and would be throwing away everything our forefathers stood for and become a Democratic Nation. The Electoral College is used to have minority votes have a second chance to be heard. By abolishing the Electoral College we are giving into dismantling federalism. By dismantling, and abolishing the Electoral College it will not only be a grave mistake, but also undermined the freedom of the minority.
What do you think the founding fathers thought about our citizens as voters? Shortly after the country’s government was formed, framers of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 did not believe that the People should directly decide who becomes the president of the United States. They made this decision because during 1787, the government was dealing with opinions from small and large states, and slave and free states. Now, though, all of the states have extremely similar rights and regulations, so I believe that there is no reason for the Electoral College to still exist. The question being answered here is whether or not the Electoral College should be abolished due to its effects on the People and
The electoral college should be abolished because it clearly makes no sense that a presidential candidate can win the popular vote and end up losing the presidency, it's not as democratic as it used to be , and let us not forgot about the 3rd party candidates that you never hear of as often as they should be. There are many unanswered questions about this topic and why this is seen as undemocratic to critics.
California receives 55 electoral votes, and each singular vote accounts for 712,000 people. However, Wyoming receives 3 electoral votes, and one of those singular votes accounts for 195,000 people. Based on the way the Electoral College is supposed to work, Wyoming is slightly over represented and California is extremely underrepresented. No states get an accurate amount of votes (H). This completely defeats the purpose of “equality among states”. “While the electoral college is based on population, only a fraction of that population is eligible to vote — and even a smaller portion actually votes” (M). The way this system works, leaves out almost half the population, making the Elected President most likely false. Due to the fact that many people have strong opinions on both sides of the argument, there are those that will say the Electoral College encourages coalition building (G). But, what is coalition building anyway? The word ‘coalition’ defines as an alliance in order to achieve a common purpose. Throughout the entirety of the 2016 Election, there has been continuous riots, marches, and protests online or in person that prove that statement to be false. If there was a time that the Electoral College should have worked, it would be
The electoral college is an outdated rigid system of voting for president made by the founding fathers of America. In 1787 the constitutional convention approved the federal Electoral College System based on the lack of education of the colonial people on politics. Times have changed and people are more familiar with the political system. Presidential candidates promote their campaigns through social media, television and news articles which allows people to gain knowledge of the candidates and their presidential duties, themselves instead of relying on elected officials to make the decision for them. The electoral college should be abolished for reasons of it disenfranchising the people, unconstitutionally defying the 14th amendment, popular sovereignty, and
The Electoral College: a system that the U.S. has used over the years to choose representatives and is a compromise between election by a vote. The Electoral College should not be abolished for three reasons. These reasons are: The system helps candidates who struggle with winning the Popular Vote; with Electoral Votes, it gives the little states enough power and votes, and if we abolish The Electoral College, we weaken the Political Two-Party-System. And if not weakened, then destroyed. These reasons will show that the Electoral College should not be abolished, and should be kept.
Background: The issue of the Electoral College as the entity responsible for appointing the President of the United States of America has been among the most controversial aspects of the legal framework set forth by the American Founding Fathers. Throughout different times in history, modifications to it, have been proposed in the form of more than 700 Congressional Bills, some of which have even received the endorsement of incumbent Presidents or the approval of one of the legislative chambers. [1] This is the matter that has drawn the most proposals for Constitutional Amendments, displaying the discontent that certain sectors of the population have expressed about the status quo. [2]
But the result of the Electoral College today is to give too much power to the small states. In fact, they have more power than the largest states in the union. For instance, California's population (the largest) is approximately 70 times that of Wyoming's (the smallest). But California only has about 18 times the Electoral College votes (55 to 3) (Raasch 1). According to writer Chuck Raasch, that means a vote in Wyoming has potentially four times the impact in the Electoral College (1). Also, in 1988, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least populous states (Alaska, Delaware, D.C., North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming) had the same number of Electoral votes (21) as the 9,614,000 voters in Florida (Kimberling 1).
The Electoral College was a well thought out compromise for the election process. Conversely, numerous Americans still argue that their votes do not count. Yet, without knowing it, Americans actually vote for electors when they vote for presidential candidates’, stated in an article from The Huffington Post. But who are the electors? How are they chosen? Why do their votes count, and ours do not? These are several questions several concerned citizens may be asking, and they will soon be answered. However, what most Americans should be concerned with is supporting their electors, because no matter how many popular votes a candidate receives, the Electoral College determines our