The election of a United States president happens every four years on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. The election may seem simple, but when you take a closer look it is very complicated. The elections have many different aspects and flaws. So far in United States history there have been 43 presidents, some serving for more than one term. Most people running for president are either previous politicians, such as a governor or senator. Most strong candidates are well known before they run for president because if no one knows a president, they are less likely to vote for them. Something else that helps presidents get elected are political parties. There are two main political parties, the Democratic and Republican parties. …show more content…
The Electoral College is a group of 538 votes used to decide the president. The number, 538, is the number of senators plus the number of representatives in the U.S. These votes are given to states depending on that state's population. California has the most electoral college votes, they have 55. While places like Wyoming and Alaska have only three electoral college votes. 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. Most of the time the electors vote for the candidate of their state, but 87 times in the past, electors have voted for the other candidate. Another problem with the electoral college is that some states have different population to elector ratios. Each state has a minimum of three electoral college votes because each state has two senators and at least one representative. Because of this, it may take three Californians votes to be equal to one person in Wyoming's
The Electoral College is pretty much a process that was established in the Constitution by the founding fathers which was suppose to be a compromise between election of the President by a vote in congress and by the popular vote of citizens. This process consists of the selection of electors, the meeting of the electors is where they vote for the President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. In the Electoral College it contains 538 electors and to win the majority they need to have 270 electoral votes. As well as, the number of electors for every state is equal to the number of Representations that the state has in congress which is based on the population and there is also one vote for each Senator. So, each state has at least three electors and votes.
vote for president based on the popular vote of their state. The electoral college is a system that definitely needs reform but is a central part of our government. In the electoral college there can anywhere from 3 to 54 electors per state based on The State’s population. The District
I must preface this discussion with the fact that I am anything but, pro Electoral College. Nonetheless, the Electoral College is a method of voting within our democracy, which each state is allocated a certain amount of “electors” who are sworn to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their respective state. However, there are two exceptions to this rule, the states of Nebraska and Maine, which bifurcate their respective electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote. The quantity of electoral votes in any given state is grounded in the state’s congressional representation. Respectively, each state is afforded two votes for every Senator with an added vote for every member of the House of Representatives, which is in-turn grounded in volume of the state population.
The Electoral College has caused numerous problems in the past and have consequently changed the outcomes of numerous elections including the elections of 1800 (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Aaron Burr), 1824 (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden), 1888, (Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison), and 2000 (George W. Bush and Al Gore). throughout these elections the same catastrophe has occurred; The winner of the popular vote did not receive the presidency due to the Electoral College votes. In addition to the problems, there have been multiple close calls, for the example the elections of 1968 and 1976. While many analysts of American politics have come to
Each state is worth a certain amount of electoral votes. These votes depend on how many representatives each state has in the House of Representatives and the Senate. There is a total of 538 electoral votes. To become president the candidate must reach a total of 270 electoral votes. This process is called the electoral
People vote for the candidates by voting for the electors that reflect the viewpoints of the particular candidate and their personal political opinion. With that said, the Electoral College is a winner take all system where the states have voted and the majority vote of the presidential candidate goes to the electors that then cast their votes for the states. The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College in the Constitution for a couple of reasons. Schulman (n.d.) states the first reason it was fabricated “was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President” (p. 1). Although, another significant reason that the Electoral College was created was for equal representation in voting
The Electoral College is a system where each state is given a number of electoral votes determined by the number of the representatives in the state combined with two electoral votes for the number of senators, and three electoral votes from the District of Columbia, totalling five hundred and thirty eight votes. The people then vote for their candidate as president and the winning presidential candidate in that state wins the electoral vote for that
Did you know that one of the biggest controversial topics is the electoral college? There always seems to be arguments about the electoral college; The electoral college has been around for hundreds of years, it was originally created to give everyone more equal rights when voting. The electoral college was embedded into the constitution and plays a major role in the presidential election. The electoral college is a system for voting who will be the next president.
The electors can vote differently than what their state’s population has voted for. Even though the majority of a state votes for a president it is simply a suggestion for the faithless electors, and they get no punishment for voting against what their state wants. There is no National law stopping electors from doing this, but some states have a law stopping electors from voting against the popular vote, and even fewer of those states have a punishment if they do not vote in line with the majority. The electoral college stops the people from directly having a say in the election of their president. The voters actually are not voting for who they want as president, but are voting for who they want as an elector to pick their country’s president, and can decide whatever they want.
The twenty-third amendment of the constitution provides each state three electors, including the District of Columbia. There are five hundred and thirty eight votes in the electoral college. Each state has two senators which is considered two electoral votes. The remaining four hundred and thirty eight electoral votes are distributed to states contingent upon their population. This is an example of how the electoral college has jaded the election process.
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
Back in the days when there was no technology, people had to find an effective way to choose a President in a fair manner. Many methods for choosing a President were
A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators.” (National Archives) Despite the criticisms that the system has received, it is still important that we maintain the Electoral College system for multiple reasons.
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
The Electoral College is a system that was established in Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution. It is a system that is used to elect the next President of the United States. The number of electors are based on the number of seats a state holds in the Senate and the House of Representatives. So, when a voter places his ballot. It cast a vow for the elector of that state to vote towards that voted candidate (1).