The United States' President and Vice President are chosen through the Electoral College, an indirect voting system. As a middle ground between electing the president through a popular vote and having Congress choose the candidate, it was established by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution. According to this method, a set number of electors is allotted to each state based on its population, and these electors vote for the president on behalf of the residents of their state. For more than 200 years, the United States has chosen its president using the Electoral College system, which has proven to be a trustworthy and accurate method. It is a mechanism that enables every state to have a say in how a presidential election will turn out. The
The Framers of the Constitution created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the President directly by popular vote and having Congress choose the President. At the time, there were concerns about electing the President directly, such as the lack of communication and travel infrastructure to facilitate a national election and the possibility of uneducated voters being easily swayed by popular demagogues. Additionally, the Framers were concerned that smaller states would be overshadowed by larger ones in a direct popular vote. The Electoral College has several pros and cons.
The United States of America Electoral College is a team who’s accountable for choosing the President as well as the Vice President, virtually every four years. The United States is known not to be a “true” democracy because of the electoral college. There are rules within the United States Electoral College that are straightforward. Every state is provided several electors.
The electoral college, created in 1787 and written into federal law in 1845, is a system in which citizens of the United States vote in general elections to choose a lineup of “electors” who pledge to vote for a particular party. Established by our Founding Fathers, it is made up of 538 members and is used by the people to indirectly elect the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States. Each state, however, does not obtain an unlimited amount of electors to choose from; the number of electors is equal to the number of members of Congress (House of Representatives and Senators) each state in entitled with. A candidate must receive a majority of 270 votes in order to win the presidency, an ideology that has begun to spiral down as the years, and presidential elections, go by.
So whichever candidate wins the most popular votes will receive that state's electoral vote. Ultimately, delegates at this time did not believe U.S. citizens had enough information to make the best decision; instead, they established the electoral college
In the Electoral College, each state gets a number of electors based on its representation in Congress. The Electoral College is the best method for electing a president for the country right now. The first reason the Electoral College is best, is that it ensures that all parts of the country are involved in the
The Electoral College is a system that has been used in the United States to choose its President and Vice President. It involves a group of electors chosen by each state who cast their votes on behalf of the citizens of their respective states. The candidate who receives a majority of the electoral votes, at least 270 out of 538, becomes the President of the United States. While some people argue that the Electoral College system is outdated and should be replaced with an alternative method, I firmly believe that it is the best system for our nation. My position statement is that the Electoral College system should be retained as it is the best way to elect the President and Vice President of the United States.
The Electoral College Emily Ballou Contrary to popular belief, America’s presidents are not elected by direct democratic vote of the people. Rather, the United States Constitution declares that they are to be elected by what is called the Electoral College. Established in 1787 during the Constitutional Convention, our Founding Fathers formed the Electoral College as a compromise between majority rule and congressional representative appointment. The Founders created the Electoral College for protection.
The electoral college which was established at the same time that the rest of the three branches were set up, has been heralded as one of, if not the most controversial part of the modern government. Created in the constitution in Article Two, the Electoral College is a process in which the United States chooses its Chief Executive, the president. The Electoral College is made up of 538 members who are chosen, most often, by state party conventions (there is no exact way that is required for the choosing of states’ electors). Once the popular vote is collected the electors pledge themselves to a candidate, normally the person who won the popular vote but not always. This means that sometimes there will be a disparity between who wins the popular
According to the National Archives, the Electoral College is, “...a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.'' The Electoral College was created in the late 1700’s, and was used as a buffer between the voting population and the official selection of the president. For the founding fathers, this solved a wide array of problems: the possible risk of leaving the power of choosing who the leader of the country to ill -informed voters, unequal representation and distribution of votes between the North and South of the U.S., and supported the idea of separation between powers in the government. In this country, it has been believed that the government has been built off of popular sovereignty, the theory that the government is created by and is subject to the will of its citizens. But how is this concept valid when the people of the United States don’t directly vote and decide who will govern them?
The system allows states to select a specific number of electors based merely on population. This announces political states with reduced populations a more valuable opportunity to secure the contested election than they would under a popular vote (Kirch). This helps ensure that all states' interests are represented, rather than just those with the most massive populations. Also, the fact that each state obtains its electors means that the election is controlled by several authorities, with each state responsible for its election. This helps prevent any condition or region from possessing all the power in an election.
Did you know that the electoral college believes that popular votes do not determine the winner but their votes also matter? In the Electoral College system, they indirectly chose the president and vice president. Each state gets to vote only once. To win you need 270 votes. Should we get rid of the electoral college?
This declares the fact that the people of America are not technically voting for their elected President, but rather state officials, or “electors” represent the voice and vote of the people. As Alexander Hamilton has stated in The Federalist Papers, “A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations” (Hamilton; Federalist #68), he basically states—as a precaution and his general thought of the Electoral College—that the system was and is, to this day, “giving all the power to a “preestablisheed body”” (“How Hamilton Saw The Electoral
These standards make it feasible for both contender to get discretionary votes from Nebraska and Maine, dissimilar to the victor take-all framework in the other 48 states. In the event that nobody gets a dominant part of appointive votes, the decision is tossed to the U.S. Place of Representatives. The main three contenders go head to head with every state making one choice. Whoever wins a larger part of states wins the race. The procedure is the same for the Vice Presidency, aside from that the U.S. Senate makes that choice.
The Electoral College is the process to which the United States elects the President, and the Vice President. The founders of the Constitution came up with this process. This was done to give additional power to the small states, and it was done to satisfy them. It works by the citizens of the United States electing representatives called electors. Each state is given the same amount of electors, as they are members of congress.
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”)