The Electoral And Electoral College

The Electoral College was first established in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 by the founding fathers as a compromise between the election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens and a vote in Congress. The Electoral College was established because the founding fathers did not trust he people in making the right choice. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors who cast their votes in order to elect the President and Vice-President of the United States, however a majority of 270 votes is required to win. As of today, each state currently has members ranging from 3 to 55 members per state. When ordinary people vote for a president, they are not voting for their president, but rather for the presidential electors.

The Electoral College in the United States was a decent resolution to a problem in the nineteenth century, but today, it is an unnecessary and undemocratic concept that would not be here if it was not a historical tradition. The Electoral College is the way the United States votes on presidential candidates: giving each state a number of electors based on that state’s number of representatives and senators. This process was first implemented when technologies such as the internet and television were not present causing most common citizens to have no idea who to vote for. The citizens would instead decide on an elector to send to vote in their place.

The electoral college in the Constitution has the purpose of electing the President with the cooperation of both Congress and the people. The process consists of citizens first selecting electors based on the quantity of delegates in each state, which then become known as the electoral college, and then compromise to elect the President as well as the Vice President. Although there have been controversies on candidates not winning the election when they have received the popular vote, the electoral college provides equality among the small states as well as checks and sets boundaries towards the preferences of the majority. Not only is balance emplaced, but delegates are also elected with the incorporation of knowledge in the government rather than interest.

It was first made because the smaller states did not want to be overtaken by some bigger states. “The immediate election should be made up by men most capable analyzing the qualities adapted to the situation, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation” ~Alexander Hamilton (Doc #1). Alexander Hamilton was saying this to mean that the college should be there because we need people that know about politics and who can understand what is going on in the election. Hamilton did not want just normal people to vote whatever they claim their party is because they may not completely understand what is going on. He wanted to keep the electoral college even though some people did not want to keep

The Electoral College was instituted by our founding fathers as an agreement for the Presidential voting procedure. Once the compromise was agreed upon the system was written into Article II, Section 1 under the 23rd Amendment of the United States Constitution on September 8, 1787. (Constitution.laws.com, 2018) Generally, it was formed for the buffer among the populations of the Presidential election and as a portion of the governmental structure that allocates additional power to the much smaller states, which assists with the voting processes by offering them support.

Write an essay that explains how the Electoral College works. How does the Electoral College shape the strategy of candidates? Why is it harder to win presidential elections post 1968?

The Electoral College is a constitutional system written in 1787, in this system “each state selects as many electors as it has representatives in Congress”, members of the college casts ballots for individuals, the individual with the most electoral votes becomes the President of the United States (Shelley 80). It is

The Electoral College dates back to the very founding of America and American politics. The way to elect the President was a hotly contested issue at the Constitutional Convention. Many options were considered, including selection by Congress, selection by state governors, selection by state legislatures, and direct popular vote (Electoral College 6). The final decision of the Founding Fathers was written in Article II, Sections II and III of the US Constitution:

Formally documented in the constitution the Electoral College is the body that elects the president and vice president elect of the United states. Each state has as many electors in the Electoral college as its representation in the house and senate. When US citizens vote, they are actually voting for the slate of electors vowing to cast their ballots for the ticket in the Electoral College. The history of the electoral college dates back to the Constitutional convention of 1787. The Convention took place in Philadelphia to discuss the concerns of the weak central government that existed under the articles of confederation. Furthermore, at the convention many methods of electing the president was put in consideration, by congress, governors,

the framers of the constitution debated many options for determining how the President of the

Created then consolidated by our founding fathers, its purpose served to balance the power between the populous states and less populated states. However, there is another reason and that reason is the founding fathers did not want a direct democracy. While the Founding Fathers wanted the people to have a say, there was one concern with this. This concern was that a charismatic tyrant could rise in power and gain the popularity of the public through manipulation. It would be Alexander Hamilton, who would address this concern and many more in “The Federalist Papers”(Williams C. Kimberling). The idea behind the Electoral College was that the group of electors could be trusted in choosing a qualified person who would then become president. This could all be seen within the constitution. The constitution itself is an ingenious set of rules created by the founding fathers, which has led our country to this day, more specifically a different era. The founding fathers wanted the constitution to be America’s fundamental laws and inside these laws, existed a fair way in selecting the president of America, known to this day as the Electoral College. Originally, the way the Electoral College was set up had made it so the runner-up would usually become the vice-president. This was a huge problem as opposing candidates usually have differing viewpoints on running the country and would not work together

The Electoral College is a group of people who are “appointed by a larger group” of people to represent each state in the U.S. who then vote for the presidential elections (Dictionary.com 2015). The founding fathers created the Electoral College so that qualified citizens could vote for the president. They believed that the average American is uniformed, so they decided that a few educated people would make the correct choice for the entire population. The founding fathers also thought the Electoral College would be effective because at that time the only way of communication was through word of mouth and through letters. With the Electoral College, it was a more simple way to get the votes to one place and count them. A major criticism of the Electoral College is the popular candidate may lose to the electoral vote. This means that if majority of the population voted for candidate A, but majority of the electoral votes were for candidate B, the president of the nation would become candidate B. This situation has occurred four out of the fifty-six presidential elections that have been held in the United States. I believe that the Electoral College should be abolished so that the popular candidate would win the election, people would feel that they are making a difference in the society they live in, and we should replace the Electoral College with popular choice or allow our house of representatives to vote for the presidents instead.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Electoral College into the United States Constitution as insurance against popular passion electing the chief executive into office. They believed there needed to be a buffer between the people and election of the president. Also a concern of the forefathers was they did not want the states with a larger population to completely overshadow the states with a smaller populace. The Electoral College system was devised to help cope with these problems. The Constitution was written and ratified in 1787 more than two hundred years ago. At the time of drafting the drafters of the Constitution never imagined there would be a two political parties that dominate our system of government or

According to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, this was the original structure of the Electoral College. Each state was given a certain number of electors based on the number of state senators, which was always 2, as well as the number of U.S. representatives, which varied by decades based on the states population.

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, yet Donald Trump is president because he won the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the system that the United States of America uses to elect the president and vice president. A couple of groups have a problem with how the Electoral College currently operates with people like Barbara Boxer, a California Senator, stating that “94% of campaigning by the presidential candidates in 2016 took place in 12 states. That was it. Two-thirds of these general election campaign events took place in 6 states.” (Congressional Digest, page 21). The idea that the Electoral College and presidential elections is ignoring the majority of the states has spurred different groups to attempt to reform the Electoral