...States Electoral College system and its contemporary challenge ! Is the Electoral College process still relevant today ? ! For some of us - European people that are accustomed to the universal suffrage - the Electoral College process and its outcome may seem a bit surprising. In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, for example, more Americans voted for Gore, but Bush actually won the presidency because he was awarded the majority of Electoral College votes. It's a political upset that's occurred several times since the first U.S. presidential election; four presidents have been elected by the Electoral College after losing the popular vote. We'll explore briefly the historic start of the process and describe two original aspects of the political controversies surrounding the outcome of the Electoral College system : the winner-take-all method of allocating the state’s electors and faithlessness : the possibility for a member of the Electoral College to be a faithless elector which characterises a member of the Electoral College who for whatever reason does not vote for the presidential candidate for whom he or she had pledged to vote - or does not vote at all. In 1787 a group of leaders of what was a year before the thirteen colonies of Great Britain drafted the Constitution of the United States, they reached the now infamous ThreeFifths Compromise to determine the population of the different states that would then be used to decide the number of seats allocated to each state...
Words: 1383 - Pages: 6
...The Electoral College: How it works Axia College University of Phoenix How do we elect the President? Many people do not understand the process by which we elect the President. They do not understand how the Electoral College works. Bill Stern (Andrews, 1996) said, “Our elections are free, it's in the results where eventually we pay.” Oftentimes, people vote based on public opinion or information obtained by the media. Voters should inform themselves on how the Electoral College works in order to make good decisions when voting for the president. Electoral College delegates elect the President. Voters elect Electoral College delegates. The Electoral College was created as a compromise between election by Congress or popular vote for the presidential election process. At the time, some politicians believed an election by popular vote was not good for the country, and others did not want to give that much power to the Congress. Although the Electoral College has had critics and controversy since its beginning, it has delivered a President and a Vice President in 54 elections. Our founding fathers formed the Electoral College in Article II, Section I, of the United States Constitution, it states, “each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress (U.S. Constitution, 1787)”. The Constitution does not state...
Words: 2577 - Pages: 11
...Presidential elections occur every 4 years, which allows United States citizens to vote for the next person who they want to run the United States. There are two ways in which United States citizens can vote for a president, either by popular vote, or electoral college vote. The next president of the United States is the candidate who “...wins 270 electoral college votes…”, but most people believe that the next president should be the candidate who wins the popular vote. Presidential elections like the 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 elections shows that candidates are able to become president if they win enough electoral college vote, but they don’t win the popular vote. The current Electoral College vote doesn’t show the true feelings of United...
Words: 1130 - Pages: 5
...An article by Bradford Plumer exemplifies this by showing who all wants to abolish the Electoral College. He says, “What have Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bob Doyle, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the AFL-CIO. . . agreed on? Answer: Abolishing the electoral college. . . over 60 percent of voters would prefer a direct election to the kind we have now” (The Indefensible Electoral College). An electoral tie is much more than just possible after “In the 2000 U.S. presidential race, Al Gore received more individual votes than George George W. Bush nationwide, but Bush won the election, receiving 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266” (The Indefensible Electoral College). The idea of having an even number of total electors introduces the possibility of a tie, which would result in the election going to the House of Representatives, which does everything but express the will of the people given that most people vote one party for President and another for Congress. And, because each state only has 1 vote, the population of the states no longer matter (The Indefensible Electoral College). Enough people agree with the idea that the uneducated and inexperienced decision the Founding Fathers made creating...
Words: 1035 - Pages: 5
...The Electoral College and the Popular vote have been a part of U.S. history since the founding of our country itself even though the actually process of both systems have changed since the late 1700’s and early 1800’s when they were first implemented. The debate on these two-unique systems have been brought to light due to the recent 2016 Presidential Election between the Presidential Candidates, Senator Hilary Clinton(D) and Donald Trump(R), when Donald Trump(R) won the 2016 Presidential Election by winning the Electoral College vote, even though he lost the popular vote. The purpose of this essay is to explain both voting systems and explain both in the best and most detail possible, as well as my personal opinion on the two, and if the current...
Words: 1058 - Pages: 5
...and more. “American society is highly polarized in its perception of the existing election system” (Belenky 2012, ix). This paper has the aim to contrast the arguments against and in favor of the Electoral College and to demonstrate possible alternatives. In the conclusion an answer to the question “Should the Electoral College be reformed?” will be given. 2. How it works The Electoral College, as it is outlined in the 12th Amendment, is a body of electors chosen to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. In Article II of the Constitution the electing procedure is written down. Each state delegates a specific number of electors to the Electoral College, dependent on its representation in Congress (House of Representatives & Senate). According to the fact that each state has two Senators and at least one Representative (dependent on the size of the population in the state), each state has three electors at the minimum (for example Alaska). With 55 electors, California has the largest number at the moment (see illustration 1) (Electoral-vote.com 2013). Figure 1: Blank map of the U.S. with electoral vote Each presidential candidate has his or her own group of electors in every state. Generally the electors are chosen by the respective political party, but there are many differences among the states concerning the selection process of the electors. The election of the President is held...
Words: 2453 - Pages: 10
...I think that people don’t vote mainly because they don’t like their choices and are apathetic and feel that their votes don’t count and do little to alter public policy. It seems like the majority of people I know don’t like or trust politicians and feel they just tell us what we want to hear and never carry through with their campaign promises and disenchanted with the whole process of voting and politics in general. Assuming that low turnout is a reflection of disenchantment or indifference low turnouts can lead to unequal representation among various parts of the population. During presidential elections what really counts is the Electoral College. I know where I live the winner of the Presidential election is announced before the polls...
Words: 593 - Pages: 3
...The electoral college has served its purpose to help elect the President of the United States for 200 years. All though the electoral college helps the nominees win the popular vote, it does not mean that they will be elected. About 7% of the presidential elections were won by the loser of the popular vote because they won the electoral vote the most recent being the year 2000(Black, Eric). I believe that the electoral college should be used to elect the President because, the candidates Advertise for themselves in areas with large populations( For example: California, New York, and Texas) leaving the small states( Nebraska) with no sense of who to vote in favor for.The candidates not understanding that most states that don’t get advertisement have the higher voter turnout(Miller, Joe). Although there are reasons that the electoral college should not be supported, using the method that has worked and is effective to get the popular vote would help all the candidates get elected and faster....
Words: 538 - Pages: 3
...two reasons why Hamilton felt a small number of persons would be better suited to choose the President of the United States. The first purpose was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President. He and other founding fathers were afraid of direct election to the Presidency. He feared a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power; basically the common men were not smart enough to make a correct selection or a select few elite “most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.” The second reason; as part of the structure of the government that gave extra power to the smaller states. The Electoral College is also part of compromises made at the convention to satisfy the small states. The slave holding states did not want a direct election for president because slaves were not counted as population until 1783 then at only 5/8 of a person. A direct election for president did not sit well with most delegates from the slave states, which had large populations but far fewer eligible voters. Under the system of the Electoral College each state had the same number of electoral votes as they have representative in Congress, thus no state could have less then 3...
Words: 596 - Pages: 3
...the Presidency. The EC is said to be an old relic of the Founding Father's fear of the electorate and in large states dominating the federal United States of America. There are many critics of the EC and several reforms have been proposed; 'The Maine System', 'EC votes in proportion to the popular vote’, ‘The Automatic plan' and the 'Direct election plan.' The Electoral College is the body, established in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers, formally elects the United States President after the public vote in November. The 50 states of America each have a set of Electoral College votes-based according to the population of that state. For example, Texas has 34 EC votes, although Vermont has three of the 538 EC votes available. This means that Texas could provide a large win for either party, it also creates problems. Texas is typically Republican because of its 34 ECV's the Democratic Party must win California (55 ECV and the largest state for ECV's) or win Montana, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Maine to get the same 34 ECV's. This gives larger states the advantage in some elections. Smaller states also have undue influence in elections small states are over represented, as they have more ECV's per head those larger states. For example California has one ECV per 617,000 residents while Wyoming has 1 vote per 165,000 residents. If the ECV's were...
Words: 1247 - Pages: 5
...Article Two of the United States Constitution (McCollester). The founding fathers of our nation spent over two months trying to devise a plan that would have a fair and just way of elected our nation’s principal administrator. The Electoral College is constructed of state electors that equal the number of the United States House of Representatives plus the 2 senators from each state. The District of Columbia has three electoral votes even though it is not a state and has no voting representation (“Presidential Election Process”). There are 538 electors total for the Electoral College and 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidential election (“Presidential Election Process”). These individuals are picked by the political parties of the states that they represent and they cast their votes in December. Most electors vote for the winner of the state election to receive all of the Electoral College votes. Congress will then tally these votes in early January before the Presidential Inauguration. People around our nation can agree that one of the things that our founding fathers provided us when creating the government was that it provided a stable political system. All of the sections of government were balanced and in check with the other sections. Some people have said that if we abolished the Electoral College it would remove a big part of the free and balanced nature of our American government system. “ The desire of Americans to maintain a balanced government where no...
Words: 1058 - Pages: 5
...President Abraham Lincoln once said, “Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters (Quotes About Voting).” This statement is not true when it comes to the United States’ presidential election, even though Americans perceive it to be. The United States of America has a president that gets elected every four years. Every American citizen that is at the age of 18 or older has the choice to vote for the president. There is a common saying that goes along the lines of, “Everyone’s vote counts.” Americans like to think that if they vote, then their vote will make a difference in the election. But in actuality, one vote...
Words: 907 - Pages: 4
...College: How Our System of Elections Needs to be Changed Richard Brookman Metropolitan State University of Denver Author Note This paper was prepared for ENG 1020, Section 031, taught by Professor Clark. Abstract Article two, section one of the Constitution details the creation and operation of the Electoral College. Each representative of each state, both senators and representatives, cast a vote for the President based on the wants of their constituents. This is the basis for the Electoral College; however our forefathers had little insight into the problems that can arise from crafting a quick solution to the problem of electing the commander-in-chief. Over the past 200 years, many changes have been made to the Electoral College when a problem has risen to give us the Electoral College of today. The people of the United States have seen what the Electoral College has become and want the election process to change into a popular vote system. The popular vote system isn’t the answer. Only a combination of the two systems will help to give fair representation to all of the states, while keeping the essence of majority rule that the people desire. This system includes a single vote for districts that are won by popular vote, getting rid of the human form of electors, and using today’s technology to make it easier to maneuver through the complexities of the voting process. The Electoral College: How Our System of Elections Needs to be Changed ...
Words: 4853 - Pages: 20
...in the Constitution. It is a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The process of the Electoral College consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for the President and the Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Electoral College has 538 electors, with a majority of 270 electoral votes required to elect the President. Each candidate running for President in your state has their own electors. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s...
Words: 938 - Pages: 4
...Monday of November, the election for the next President and Vice President of the United States takes place. Although thousands of individuals cast their vote for their candidate of choice on this day, it is really Electors that they are voting for. The electors that are selected will go on to choose the next President and Vice President of the United States. For example, the candidate that could win the popular vote of a state is not guaranteed because election is actually decided by the group of electors, called the Electoral College. The U.S Electoral College is the division of the government that selects the President and Vice President of the United States. It consists of 538 electors, where the amount from each state equals its number of members in its congressional delegation. In two states, Nebraska and Maine, the candidate is determined by majority vote and the winner of the popular vote receives 2 electoral votes (“What is the Electoral College?”). Allotting a number of votes to each state in this way is inaccurate and doesn’t properly represent the vastly larger or smaller states. Although the use of an Electoral College during a presidential election is considered a key element to democracy, its application to the process makes it unrepresentative of the voters and elections should instead be based on the popular vote of the people. When the constitution was created in 1787, the founders proposed several different ways to conduct the election process. The idea of having...
Words: 1695 - Pages: 7
