Should the Electoral College be replaced with a direct national election? In order to understand this question, we must first understand what the Electoral College and a direct national election are. The Electoral College is basically a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. This group of people is made up of 538 electors who are chosen or appointed by a larger group and a majority of 270 votes by these people are required to elect a president or vice president. A direct national election on other hand is more straightforward as it is when the nation gets to elect—presidents are elected in all or most constituencies of a nation or state. The Electoral …show more content…
Gregg II believes the Electoral College has long been one of the least understood and most unappreciated aspects of the American constitutional order. Yet, it has endured and continued to serve American democracy, why?—because it works. He argues a few times that our presidential elections are open, free, and fair due to the Electoral College. “Our fights can be bitter, but when they are decided at the ballot box they end with legitimate presidents and governable regimes,” Gregg says. He gives the example that in a presidential election, candidates are a race to win more votes than the other guy—and each is based on every vote being counted as well as all votes counting equally. However, all the Constitution tells us is to not count the votes as one giant political entity but instead count them on a state-by-state basis. Therefore, the removal of the Electoral College would radically alter American politics and undermine the nation’s constitutional ability as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan concluded in Gregg’s article in favor of the fairness …show more content…
We must keep in mind that every presidential election since the 12th Amendment was added in 1804 has been running accordingly to the rules of the Electoral College. Even though it may be known to be an “outdated and undemocratic framework” as mentioned on a newspaper article found on dailynebraskan.com—changing the rules to a complete new system will change the game. If the Electoral College has made it this far I believe it is for a reason—because it has served to elect forty-four presidents, many of them good, some great, and only a few disasters. It has ultimately created the balance we need in our political order. And l could not agree more with what Gary L. Gregg II said, “we should not gamble what we have in chasing after abstract dreams and ideological agendas.” We should be realistic that the “game” is not going to change anytime, as a few people seem to agree with on nerdwallet.com. However, I feel that this is a good example of us humans always wanting “more” then what we already having and not learning to satisfy with what we have. We must be aware that as stated on uselectionatlas.org, “although there were a few anomalies in its early history, none have occurred in the past century. Proposals to abolish the Electoral College, though frequently put forward, have failed largely because the alternatives to it appear more problematic than is the College itself.”
Based on the pie charts, the reader is shown that presidents that did win the popular vote, did not win by that large of a margin the Independent candidate and other major-party candidate split the votes. The Electoral College only shows a larger win ratio. Abolishing the electoral college would “...encourage single-issue ideologues and eccentric millionaires to just into presidential contests” (Document E). Although these people tend to run anyways, the electoral college is a way to ensure that the people with no political background or people that do not qualify as president will not win. The Electoral College was originally built for a world that did not have mass media and a way for people among the U.S. to communicate, but presently, the Electoral College serves as a way to ensure
If we somehow happened to be a capable vote, then we ought to have the capacity to really pick who might be president. The Electoral College removes that from us. The Electoral College is not by any stretch of the imagination reasonable for our rights and our opportunity. It, for the most part, takes away the ability to vote the president. The Electoral College was made in a period when votes were harder to gather and number.
However, Kimberling points out in his article “The Electoral College” that if one is elected with a substantial lead in popular vote, they are insured to the have more electoral votes. If one has barely a lead in popular vote count, both candidates would have the support to effectively lead the nation.(Kimberling) Counting and recounting all of the votes would be an unnecessary waste of time when two nominees have nearly the same backing from the people. The article also predicts that “if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only consideration, should we not then abolish the senate which represents states regardless of population?”(Kimberly) Therefore, the only way a person should be picked for the presidency is the Electoral College. Today, Americans throw away their constitution and founders who made the United States what it is today.
A growing number of Americans would rather have a direct popular vote than the Electoral College. This disparity comes from believing that the current system is not democratic and prevents each vote from being viewed equally. The Electoral College needs to be changed because it misrepresents the opinions of the people, dismisses
Should the Electoral College be Abolished? After the 2000 presidential election, and more recently the 2016 election, many have suggested that America abolish the electoral college, as it has elected the candidate with the lower popular vote on multiple occasions. Although a direct democratic approach to presidential elections (where the election is decided by popular vote) appears to many as an appropriate solution, this approach would grant too much power to large metropolitan areas, make rural votes practically irrelevant, and take away power from states. In order to prevent a situation like such, the electoral college should not be abolished—it must remain, but slight alterations should be made so that America is more equally represented.
Since the inception of our constitution in 1787, there has only been 4 elections where the Electoral College has allowed the future president-elect candidate to win the election, despite losing the popular vote. 4/57 elections is probably something that political scientists don’t lose sleep over, but it is a topic that is worth mentioning and discussing, especially after the controversial presidential election in 2000. From my point of view, I believe that the method we use in selecting our presidents is flawed and ineffective for a couple of reasons. First, the Electoral College has far fewer votes than the American people, yet their vote has a lot more meaning. With 538 delegates representing the Electoral College, it is unfair and inequitable to the millions of people who devote their time and energy to stand in long
The Federalist system of our government requires there be a sharing of power between branches, which is very much enforced with the Electoral College. There are speculations that with the abolishment of the Electoral College, the Federalist system would be lost with it. The Electoral college also helps to promote the two party system, and while some people may take issue with this, it is a way of creating stability in our government. With the distribution of power the Electoral College promotes, this allows the minority to be represented. However, there is a big issue in that the majority vote is not properly reflected by the Electoral College.
Rush Limbaugh once said, “The primary purpose of the Electoral College is to maintain the power of the states and to support the idea that the election is decided by the states. It’s not decided by the general population, and it never was.” Rush Limbaugh is describing exactly why the Electoral College was created- so that power could be divided amongst the states without one person holding more power than another. Although some people think that a national popular vote would be a better way to have elections, it is actually the exact opposite. Getting rid of the Electoral College would mean that not only would the bigger, more populated, cities hold all of the power, you are just one vote that is going up against thousands of others.
All through the history of the United States of America, many people have discussed the abolishment of the Electoral College. For many reasons, some believe it is what makes our country have the type of government we have, some believe that it's what limits the power of the government, and many people such as Mitch McConnell believes it is what gives us our freedom and prosperity. While these are valid arguments there is a multitude of reasons to why the electoral college should be abolished. Such as there is only a need for twelve states in order to become the president, popular vote of the people for president can still lose, and the Swing states are given too much power and attention compared to that of the other states. This is why I believe in the abolishment of the Electoral College.
Electoral College Argumentative The Electoral College was a compromise between the national and state governments in the United States back when the Constitution was still a new governmental document. In its time the Electoral College served to make sure that the President was chosen by the most qualified people from each state. Nowadays things have changed, the Electoral College’s original purpose has been perverted into a tool used by politicians to win the presidency unfairly. The Electoral College is an outdated piece of legislation that favors votes from swing states rather than the popular vote and should be abolished.
In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it
Electoral College has maintained for hundreds of years and it’s time for a change because of the more and more serious problems it is causing. These are some reasons why we should consider replacing this system with a new more efficient one. Firstly, Electoral College creates the possibility for the candidate who loses the popular vote but wins the electoral vote to become president. In the much-publicized election of 2000, Vice President Al Gore beat Governor George W. Bush by more than 500,000 votes in the national popular tally but lost in the Electoral College because of a last-minute, 537-vote margin in Florida .
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.
The Electoral College is one of the most important systems in the United States’ elections, and a deciding factor in every general election for the presidency. Established in 1787, the College has been a system in the US for quite a while. Some people would say that it is unconstitutional, because in some elections people who didn’t even get the popular vote still won, and others say that it is a great and founding system that is integral to a fair election. In my opinion, it is a great system that is very much needed in our election process and I believe our country would be a lot different without it. As one of the most important systems in the US, it’s hard to imagine how elections would be in the absence of it.
Several years after the United States came to be, the Constitutional Convention met to determine how the new nation should govern itself. The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. The delegates believed that the president’s power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nation’s principle of representative democracy, while others