Electoral College Pros And Cons

Short Essay: The Electoral College was constructed in the 1700s in which it was a process that ensured that election of the President of the United States was fair and not chaotic. It consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. Many people disagree with the system of the Electoral College being an impact when determining the President of the United States.

The smaller states rule the elections because they have the most power. “The states with the most electoral votes in California with 55, and Texas with 38” (Document A), which isn’t fair with some smaller states having only 3. Also each state doesn’t have the equal amount of votes, and the smaller states have more power behind their votes. “Each state casts only one vote, the single representative from Wyoming,

The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. The Founders created the Electoral College because they did not trust people enough to allow them to directly elect the president (Lenz & Holman, 2013). Neither one of the candidates are elected from the popular vote. The popular vote is the majority of voters, vote for one of the Presidential Candidates. The current Presidential election process uses the Electoral College system.

Throughout this time, our views on the Electoral College have went in all kinds of ways.  The big reason for the Electoral College, was so that the whole country had a more equal say on choosing the national president.   In each state the electors gather on the Monday following the second Tuesday of December. Each state has electoral votes according to the number of House members and Senators it has in Congress.

The electoral college is, “a body of people representing the states of the US, formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president” (Kimberling). Come election time, the states that make up the United States are worth a certain number of votes. That number depends on the population of the state. For example, California has 55 electoral votes, the most, because it is the most populous, and the District of Columbia is one of the smallest and has 3 electoral votes. In

The Electoral College exists, according to the Federalist Papers, in order to account for the opportunity of the tyranny of the majority or factions. It gives us the responsibility of choosing the President and members that are the best for us that prevents from bias opinions on who is chosen. The reason that the Constitution calls for this extra layer, rather than just providing for the direct election of the president, is that it will harm us a whole. James Madison worried about what he called "factions.” Until today, we are afraid of what Madison called, "the tyranny of the majority" – was that a faction could overgrow 50% of our population, at which point could sacrifice the rights of other citizens.

Giving back the power of the people will solve many debating issues in the election system. Take away the majority and give back the power to the individual

This allows the smaller States their chance to receive direct contact with the presidential candidates. Congressional district allegation also allows chance for more parties to win electoral votes, although this may also cause the fragmentation of parties and cause the larger parties to scrounge the minimum number of electoral vote for the presidency. Proportional allocation would have each State's electoral votes divided in the same proportion as that State's popular vote. This plan would have the effect of forcing the candidates to campaign in the smaller, less well-known places. Through the campaigning in the smaller Districts this may have the impact of boosting voter enthusiasm and hopefully causing a spike in participation due to the fact of the candidates reaching out to those who are often ignored in the race.

Though unlikely to be at the forefront of any 2016 presidential platforms, the Electoral College is a widely contested issue among partisans, many of who believe that a better method exists for selecting the President of the United States. This anti-Electoral College sentiment is also present among Americans nationwide, Republicans and Democrats alike. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 61% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats would vote to do away with the Electoral College. In today’s contentious political atmosphere, in which Republicans and Democrats are constantly at odds with one another, any level of agreement between the parties clearly indicates that a change needs to be made. Changes are already starting to occur at the state level,

Monitoring election problems will overall reduce the cost of presidential elections by limiting ballot locations and campaigns. The election between close candidates can be more efficiently solved with the enactment of the Electoral

In the United States, the Electoral College decides the victor of a national race. Each state has its own number of electoral votes, which is controlled by state populace. This framework is a "champ takes all" framework. Which implies the hopeful with 50 percent or a greater amount of the votes in an individual state gets the majority of that states electoral votes. A few people have seen this framework as obsolete and unreasonable.

In the United States during a presidential election the Electoral College is used to formally vote on who should be president and vice president. The United States uses the Electoral College was designed to prevent repetitions of inconclusive elections and was written in the Constitution under the Twelfth Amendment, in 1804 (Ginsberg 386). There has been controversy concerning the Electoral College however with some candidates winning the national vote but losing the Electoral College vote. The Electoral College is defined “the presidential electors from each state who meet after the popular election to cast ballots for president and vice president” (Ginsberg 386). The Electoral College is comprised of 538 electors that have been selected from their designated party.

The Electoral College system the founding fathers devised helps to balance out the power of the large, populous states. This system forces candidates to campaign in all states since they all carry some sway in the elections (“Understanding the Presidential Election”). However, other issues present themselves as well, like states with large independent voters that can be swayed and the issue that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election. The first issue is that states that are equally divided between democrats and republicans and hold a large number of electoral votes like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered swing states. (“Understanding the Presidential Election”)

Every four years we hold an election to decide who will be hold the office for the President of the United States. The founding fathers established the Electoral College to keep a candidate from manipulating the publics opinion and keep them from gaining absolute power. It also was set up so that smaller states would be able to have same power or say as the bigger states (Why the Electoral College). Each state is giving “Electors” based on the number of members it has in the U.S. House of Representatives, and also gets a 2 Electors for the two members they have in the U.S. Senate. Washington D.C. however only has 3 Electors.

The framers at the Constitution Convention believed that the president should be indirectly voted for. The framers thought the citizens were not smart enough and were uninformed to be able to elect their own leader. They knew their leader had to be chosen in an informed process that would consider the desires of every citizen without giving away too much power to one group. The delegates did not trust that the voters had enough information to be able to vote on their own. This lead to the creation of the Electoral College.