The Importance Of Electoral College

Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.

Established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Electoral College is a system utilized in The United States of America to select the President and Vice President. This process was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787, when the Constitution was written. The original purpose of the electoral system was to ensure that those who select the leaders of this nation were the most knowledgeable and informed people that America had to offer. The electors - the elected officials that make up the Electoral College - are elected to office through a general election wherein the entire national population has the right to vote. The President of the United States, however, is actually elected to office by the Electoral College only, regardless of the popular vote of the citizens in general. Thus, the Presidential election is the only federal election in our nation where the vote of the citizenry does not directly determine the victor. Despite the fact that this electoral system has been in place and operational for over two hundred years, the Electoral College is looked upon by some as an honorable system, whereas others view it as faulty. The Electoral College is not fair and equitable because it is based on population, it is not trusted by the people, and it is unjust to the wishes of the citizens.

A president can win the majority of the popular vote but may lose the electoral vote. If political candidates lose the electoral vote then the candidate might have lost the whole election. There are many examples where this situation has happened before. According to Document G, a chart shows different presidential elections from the year 1824 to 2000. In 1824, Andrew Jackson was running against John Adams.

America has been acknowledged as being one of the world’s leading democracies, but to continue implementing the use of the Electoral College creates some distortion to that title. The out of date system does not accurately portray democracy. Theoretically, a democracy is government system that is ruled by the people. In reality, an individual’s vote may not matter depending on the state they reside in. Robert Dahl, a Democratic Theorist stated, “every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.” Political equality is important to the distribution of power. Even if a person is wealthy and of power their vote should be counted the same as someone in poverty.

American voters do not directly vote for the President. When voters go to vote on Election Day to select who they think the next president should be, we are not actually voting for a candidate directly. We are casting our support for a candidate and a group of “electors” who directly submit the votes to determine who the next president will be. (Green) We, as people, do have a right to vote for our president directly, and we are. Members of the electoral college have to be elected and this happens once voters cast their vote for a candidate for president. These are not random people, we elected them. We need to look further into the issue to see that there is a reason for the Electoral College. We need to see the method to the Electoral College’s madness. This is why although some say the electoral college is unfair and corrupt, it

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

The electoral college should be kept. Five times has a candidate won the electoral vote without the popular. The most recent being our last election. Each time, it sparks a debate on whether or not to do away with this system of voting. In fact, there have been 700 proposals in the last 200 years to get rid of, or modify the electoral college.

The 2000 presidential election was a major eye opener for many people. As it appeared to also be the dismay of many, the candidate who won the most popular votes nationwide actually lost the contest. In the election's risen moment, popular attention centered around the Electoral College and its role in the presidential election. Under the U.S. Constitution, the people did not necessarily direct vote for the President in a nationwide election; rather, the people in each state would vote for electors from that state, who in turn would cast the constitutionally decisive votes for President and Vice President. Moreover, not only is the people's influence indirect, the Electoral College's voting pattern does not necessarily track the national popular

Electing government officials is a major part of being an American. The citizens of the United States have the privilege of voting for their officials , representing America’s democracy. Although a big misconception on this is that the people actually do not vote directly for who becomes elected president but rather who gets to elect the next president. The Electoral College has been in place since 1804 and continues to be the system the United States uses to elect the president. The Electoral College is filled with history, a lengthy process , and questionable arguments on its validity.

I believe that we don't need the Electoral College for multiple reasons. One of the reasons have to do with technology and another reason has to do with power. There are more reasons as well. While I believe that we don't need the Electoral College, if we go with the popular vote then we could run into issues like the candidates won't actually get more than half of America's vote.

With the electoral college votes the popular vote was disregarded and had a new winner for president.

“However, due to the indirect manner in which the presidential race is decided, occasionally the candidate who wins the greatest number of popular votes nationwide fails to gain a majority of the delegates' votes in the Electoral College.” (Alex Thomson, 2007) Five times in the history of the United States the popular vote has not been winner of the Election. The most recent of these being in the Election just last year. Hillary Clinton took the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, while Donald Trump clinched the votes in the Electoral College and therefore winning the Presidency.

Electoral College is the instrument built up by the United States Constitution for the roundabout decision of the President of the United States and Vice President of the United States. Natives of the United States vote in each state and the District of Columbia at a general race to pick a slate of "balloters" promised to vote in favor of a particular party's candidate.

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

The Electoral College was founded in 1787, when the writers of the Constitution were discussing how they would go about electing the future Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States. The Electoral College is just a part of the United States process of electing the next president. In the diagrams on the page above, you can see the Electoral College in the election of 1800 and in the election of 2012. Over time, the Electoral College has played the same role, but as times are changing, is it necessary to keep the Electoral College and continue with what is familiar, or throw it in the trash and try something new?