Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

The Electoral College condenses the population’s vote for the President of the United States into 538 electoral votes. After all the votes are tallied,

The Electoral College is sometimes considered puzzling. Its purpose and origin can be difficult to understand, and not seem necessary. When the system is understood, people have realized that this system is fallible, and called for reforms. One of the primary reasons for the creation of the Electoral College is that when the American government was being formed, it was believed that citizens could not be relied upon to properly select the nation’s leader. Some founders, Alexander Hamilton in particular, assumed that a candidate with tyrannical views would be able to sway the voters in his or her favor.

The Electoral College is “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” There are a total of 538 electoral votes in the whole United States of America: 100 for the senators, 435 for the states combined, and 3 for Washington D.C. Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. There are many flaws for this system. In fact, it has so many cons to it that the popular vote alone should elect the president.

The Electoral College is the intuition that formally elects the president. Each state has a certain amount of electors assigned to it, that number is based on how many representative that states as in congress. It is made up of 538 members which is the sum of the 435representative, 100 senators, and 3 electors given to the District of Columbia. In order to win the election a presidential candidate needs to receive a majority of the votes (270). The topic of whether the Electoral College is still a necessary part of today’s election process is highly controversial.

When people go to the polls to vote, they aren’t voting directly for who should get elected, instead they are telling their state how they want it to use its electoral college votes. 48 states use the “winner takes all principle” This means that in these 48 states, if one candidate wins the majority in that state, then that candidate gets all the electoral votes in that state. These “Votes” are actually electors. Each elector has one vote, and although they are supposed to vote for the candidate their state supports, they are not required to.

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 comprises of 538 electors,

The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton’s 227, thus winning the presidential election. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer

The Electoral College has been around for many years and has proven to be a useful tool in voting for a president. However, as useful as it is, we must ask if it is still the most optimal option when voting for president now that we have electronic communication and can spread information like wildfire. The Electoral College is flawed and should be changed.

Madison noted that the North-South divide presented an obstacle of a ‘serious nature’ to direct democracy. He concluded that the use of electors that gave each state a set number of votes ‘seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.’ Now slavery is gone, yet the electoral college remains. ( Turley 1) Since there isn’t slavery anymore and everyone has equal voting rights there are no reasons for keeping electoral college. Therefore, the electoral college should be removed from our presidential

The Electoral College should be abolished because of the occasions where presidents have won without popular vote, the number of electoral votes each state gets, today people are more educated and their vote should be counted one person, one vote. There have been four occasions where the president elected did not win the majority vote because of the Electoral College. One of the four elections was in 1824 when John Quincy Adams was elected president even though he did not receive the majority vote. He received 84 electoral votes, Henry Clay received 37, Andrew Jackson received 99 and William Crawford received 41. None of the four candidates received 51% if electoral college so the vote went to the House of Representatives.

Consisting of 538 electors, a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect a President (NARA). Representation in the college is directly proportionate to the number of Congressional members your state has, one for each Senator and Representative. When a citizen casts

The electoral college has always successfully chosen a president and benefited small states. However, in the more recent years there has been much debate as to whether or not this system works for our country. There have been five times when the winner of the popular vote loses the election leaving citizens wondering

Each state has a different number of electors, based on the number of representatives they have in Congress, which is based on population. I.e. Alabama has

Each elector must cast one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. In order to win the electoral college, and be nominated as President of the United States, the candidate must gain 270 of the 538 electoral votes. In an instance where no candidate receives the 270 votes needed, the House of Representatives