Our Founding Fathers had great concern over the topic of the government obtaining too much power over the people and with that in mind they constructed a system of indirect election where citizens would choose an elector. That system would distant the citizens from directly electing the president, avoiding any possibility to create tyranny. Their fears were about whether citizens could exercise the best judgement and their capability to fully understand and make good choices in voting. They did not want a group to go off in the wrong direction and take control over others. They thought that a chosen group of more educated and elite individuals elected by the people would be able to better interpret the situation and exercise better judgement. In a way, they were trying to safeguard democracy by instituting the Electoral College as the method to elect our presidents.
Not all systems are perfect, nor is the Electoral College. As we seen in the 2016 presidential election, the popular vote may not necessarily get the majority in the Electoral College resulting in what is criticized not to be as democratic when the popular vote winner, Hillary Clinton in this case, was the loser of the election. The outcome of the election can be dictated by the electors and in some cases not reflect the will of the people. Also, the winner-take-all clause creates a possibility that the popular vote gets nothing even in a situation when is it very close to half the votes. All states except for
In the United States, the Electoral College determines the victor of a national election. Each state has its own number of electoral votes, which is determined by state population. This system is a “winner takes all” system. Which means the candidate with 50 percent or more of the votes in an individual state gets all of that states electoral votes. The 2016 presidential election will have 538 electoral votes, this means that the election will be decided who is the first candidate to 270 votes. Some people have seen this system as outdated and unjust. Many are looking at a way to change the system and others would like to do away with the system
A Congressional Proportional method is another alternative being proposed in opposition to the Electoral College. A Congressional proportional method would allocate votes based on the winner of each congressional district. It would also award the winner of the overall popular vote in each state two electoral votes(senators). Once again on the surface this system looks fair and reasonable, but if you investigate deeply it can be seen that there is one glaring flaw in this system. The act of Gerrymandering which is used throughout the United States in every state is when the authority in each state decided which way the districts will be drawn. In simpler terms an authority could draw district that would exclude certain type of voters to increase
Those who are for the Electoral College have their own interesting host of points to make on the subject. They make mention of it contributing to the cohesiveness of the country, that it enhances the status of minorities, that it encourages political stability, and that it maintains a federal system of government and representation (Leip) . Regarding the Electoral College affecting the cohesiveness of the country, the concern is that without the Electoral College states with lower populations are devalued and that having the college ensures that they have some value and stake in its votes towards the election. This makes some sense, but it is just worth noting that the votes of the college are determined in some degree by population anyway.
The number of electoral votes decided for each state are based on the number of electors each state is entitled to represent a state in the Senate and House of Representatives known as Congress. The state of North Carolina has fifteen electoral votes and those electoral votes were won by presidential candidate Mitt Romney (winning 50.39%) in the 2012 election. It is understood that the Electoral College has some positive attributes to include maintaining divisions of power between the three branches of government, it promotes a two-party system and allows minority and interest groups to be represented. Unfortunately on the negative side this voting system does not reflect the popular vote of the people, it discourages third parties and then
One of the arguments in this article is that the Electoral College is outdated and should be removed. Then, it states that the Electoral College symbolizes "America's original sin," slavery. When slavery was common in the U.S, a direct popular vote would have the south at a disadvantage because at the time the Constitution gave no voting rights to the black population. Therefore, the North would have an advantage because of their large white population which did have the right to vote. The three-fifths compromise counted the slave population for voting purposes only, each slave being three-fifths of a white person, which gave the south more electoral votes. Another argument is that the Electoral College gives smaller states an advantage. Apparently,
The potency of the states to choose how their Electoral College votes works has many different outcomes. Since the NPV has not come into full effect political leader, Bradley Jones, says that, “As an alternative to the national popular vote compact, we [could] do what Nebraska and Maine do and award two electoral votes to the popular vote winner, and our remaining electoral votes to the winner in each of the state's Congressional districts” (Jones 1). This alternative still embodies the conception of popular sovereignty and keeps the Electoral College in the check. The states have a great puissance in determining and altering elections and choosing electors. The states are able to choose electors “via popular vote, via the choice of state legislators,
The forebearers came up with this in our constitution as a bargain between the Congress's vote and the qualified citizens vote. The Electoral College is a formal body which elects the president and vice president of the United States. What makes up the formal body? The formal body refers to the electors, in which each state has a certain number of electors, In the Electoral College, each state has as many electors as they have senators and representatives. The District of Columbia has three electors by itself. When voting, voters actually vote for the slate of electors. These electors vow to cast their ballots for the spot in the electoral college. In order to have a decent leader, Americans vote for a person that will do everything possible to promote their country position in the world’s politics in the first place.
In order to understand the Electoral College, you must understand the history of it. The Founding Fathers were trying to determine how they could select a leader when the nation had its share of problems.
How would we as Americans elect our president if we didn’t use the electoral college system? Would it be better or worse for our country? Our fore fathers wrote the constitution so that America would have a different result than the opposing countries. They wanted to ensure that the future generations could be successful and not deal with the tyranny that they had to deal with. Although I cannot discuss the constitution, but rather a small portion. The part of the constitution that peaks my interest the most is the Electoral College.
When the system of government was finally decided on, our founding fathers understood the importance of the balance of power within the three branches of the government. They called this system checks and balances. This system was set up to ensure that the government would remain loyal to the people and loyal to their states (Hamilton). In The Federalist Papers, No. 68, Alexander Hamilton discusses the importance of having the president elected by the Electoral College. He said that in order to ensure that we do not end up with the same problems that America had with the monarch of England, it was important that the balance of power was spread throughout the government and that no one portion have too much power.
Research suggests that the Electoral College system should be amended because it poorly illustrates democracy, is outdated and
The Electoral College has been very promising by continuously doing what it was made to do.. The Electoral College comes with its pros and cons. People want to keep the Electoral College and others want it gone. The Electoral College should be maintained for the future elections, because it has provided much help for many elections.
The Electoral College what can I say to be honest, I know nothing about the Electoral College, but I will do my best to explain it to people who might know and to help them know so when they 're seventeen they know like I should. So the Google definition of the Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who cast votes in the election of the President and Vice President. I would have not given that explanation, it would have told you it is a College. So helping you and myself, I will first explain how it works, then how Electors are selected, and the qualifications to be one and their restriction on who the Electors can vote for. Then the Election 1800 and the 12th Amendment. Then I will explain times where
The 2016 presidential election was an example of the discrepancy between the Electoral College votes and the national popular votes. If the last presidential election had been decided by a national popular vote, then Hillary Clinton would have won the presidency because she had the majority of votes. However, due to the design of the Electoral College, Donald Trump won the election for president in 2016; although, he lost the national popular vote. Just as some people questioned the effectiveness of the Electoral College during some of the previous elections, several people questioned the effectiveness of the Electoral College again in 2016. The debate about whether the Electoral College should be kept or
When the Founding Fathers were piecing together our government, they did not intend to make it a true democracy. Instead, they designed it to be a republic in which the citizens are represented by electors. If it was not this way, rural areas of the country would have almost no say in the presidential election. Most states follow the winner-takes-all rule. This states that the candidate that gets the majority of votes within a state automatically gets all of the electoral votes (Ross).