...The Electoral College: Is it Really Worth It? The Electoral College. An iffy subject, isn’t it? Some people support it, while others do not. That’s just how it’ll be. The Electoral College was made to give the smaller states more power as a whole, given the large population differences between some states. While it may seem fair in some ways, in other ways it seems entirely unfair. So should the Electoral College be abolished? No. The Electoral College should not be abolished because it supports our Founding Father’s views on federalism, it makes sure every state gets representation, and it gives smaller states a better representation. The first reason that the Electoral College should not be abolished is that it supports the idea of federalism....
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...chosen by the Electoral College, a group of 538 electors. These electors are distributed amongst the states based on the number of senators and representatives it has in Congress. A candidate must then try to gain a majority of electoral votes from these states to win the election. For many years, the Electoral College has been debated. Some argue the Electoral College is unneeded, while others believe it is necessary. The Electoral College is a necessary system because it ensures the selection of a qualified president, contributes...
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...In your initial post of at least 200-250 words, briefly summarize how the Electoral College works. Explain some of the main pros and cons in the debate about whether to keep or abolish the current Electoral College process. Also explain one proposal to change how the system works without formally abolishing it. Evaluate the various arguments and the proposal. Include at least two perspectives in your assessment: According the New York Times (2008) Electoral College 101, in America how the system works in electing our commander and chief, is generally the Electoral College was created by the founding fathers and most that doubt direct democracy because they didn’t believe that the President and Vice President should be elected directly by the people and congress. The Electoral College includes 538 electors from 50 states, and the state capital calls the electors. The electors according to the constitution are responsible for electing the President and Vice President of the United States. A majority is required of 270 to win of the 538 electoral votes is needed to elect our President. The majority of the time the electors cast their votes for candidates receiving the majority votes in that particular state. Electoral votes are primarily based on the number of senators and representatives. Article II of our constitution sets guidelines on how our President should be elected and how often it states” the president “"shall hold office during the term of four years." The season...
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...The Electoral College Should Be Abolished The Electoral College has been around for over 200 years. It was made in a time when the population of the United States wasn’t as large as it is now so, the Electoral College helped give smaller populated areas more power in elections. There are 538 qualified electors and to become president you’ll need 270 votes from the Electoral College. The amount of electoral votes a state gets is determined by the population of the whole state. A state is given one electoral vote for every representative and two for each senator. When a person goes to vote they aren't really voting for the president they are voting for an elector to cast their vote on the candidate that gets the most popular votes in that state. So, if the population of a state votes for a presidential candidate by even 1% more than the other, all the electors in that state need to cast in their vote for the presidential candidate that won by that 1%. For years, the question of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has been floating around. The Electoral College should be abolished. It takes away voting rights of...
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...Christian Llerena BUS 200 Dr. Lasher 3/19/12 The Electoral College is defined as “a body of electors chosen by the voters of each state to elect the President and Vice President of the United States”. The Electoral College system has been a staple in the United States since the ratification of The Constitution, however there is much debate on whether it should remain or be done away with completely. In this essay, I will give a brief history on the Electoral College, how it works, and why it was created in the first place. Despite the shortcomings and limitations of the Electoral College I believe that it should not be abolished because it contributes to the cohesiveness of the country, it maintains a federal system of government, and it maintains the interests of minority groups. To begin with, I will discuss how the Electoral College works. The Electoral College operates by having each state allocate a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) along with the number of its U.S. Representatives (varies from state to state depending on its population). Next, after all their caucuses and primaries, each party nominates their candidates for president and vice president. After that, the people from each state vote for a party’s slate of electors. Whichever party slate gains the most popular votes becomes the slate of electors for that state. Then, the electors meet in their respective state’s capitol and cast their votes for president and vice...
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...Elector | The Electoral College | Should it be done away with? | Presidential election seasons tend to be an exciting and volatile time within the United States. This is made ever more true by the existence of the Electoral College. When brought up in everyday conversation, the phrase Electoral College gets danced around and avoided. That is because it is such a difficult concept to get a grasp on. Not many people exactly know how our election system works due to the cryptic language that it normally is defined with. It is safe to assume that the uneducated voter believes that whichever candidate wins the most votes nationwide is the winner, and that is sound logic. However in the case of the Electoral College, that sound logic doesn’t hold true; one of the commonly disputed deficiencies of the electoral system. Are these criticisms justified or are they merely just complaints? Another important question to ask is why this system was put into place by our Founding Fathers; there must be a logical explanation, right? In order to begin to understand the system that is currently in place, it is best to look at why it was seen as a necessary measure and some of the history surrounding it. Our Founding Fathers thought it was important that the States and the citizens residing in them should have a say in the appointment of our nation’s leader. The last thing they wanted was to have Congress deciding who would become president. They feared this for several...
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...Divided congress with great difficulty passing bills Primary reason: president is an integral part of the legislative process Appoint federal justices and government employees (e.g. heads of CIA and Federal Reserve) Enforce laws executive orders Order of the president without Congressional approval that has the force of law Only operates within the framework of an existing piece of legislation or constitutional power Order based on a certain interpretation Example: Harry Truman integrates the armed forces Ends segregation of blacks and whites in the army Issue pardons Electoral college There are two electoral colleges Electoral college & the House Same thing in Britain Candidates compete to win individual states (national popular vote not important) Each state is worth a certain number of voters (bigger states are worth more) Race to 270 votes – a candidate must win a majority of electoral votes – 270 is the magic number out of 538 total votes – if...
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...Electoral College, Time for Change? By Chris Brady May 21, 2014 Introduction: The history of the Electoral College was born by the founding fathers during the Constitutional Convention. There were roughly four ideas of how to elect a president to the United States. First was the idea of giving the power to Congress to choose the president, but detractors worried that giving the authority to Congress could create corruption, political bargaining, and foreign influence on their choice. Plus this could upset the balance of power that the founding fathers were trying to create with the Constitution. Secondly was the idea of giving the authority to the state legislatures. This idea was swiftly rejected for the fact that many believed that the president could be controlled by the State Legislature and decrease the federal authority and undermine the founding fathers idea of separation of powers. The third idea was to let the president be chosen by a direct popular vote. This was also rejected because the founding fathers believed that because of the lack of information for a candidate a state would just vote for a candidate from that particular state or region. The framers saw the possibility of at worst that no president would emerge with a popular majority sufficient to govern the whole country. They believed that for a best case scenario would be that the choice of president would always be decided by the largest, most populous States with little regard for the smaller ones...
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...Overall, Dave thinks that people are good and could be interested but because of the media and how things are set up, people don’t get to show how good that they are. He stresses that the environment we live in is why they don’t get involved. In his exact words,”As long as we believe that people, our own neighbors, are selfish, stupid or lazy, then there's no hope. But we can change all those things I mentioned. We can open up city hall. We can reform our electoral systems. We can democratize our public spaces.” He believes that people are able to change what they want to fix but it won’t happen if we as citizens and people of the world believe that we’re lazy and won’t be able to change what we want to change. When we keep that mindset, hope for the world and everything we want to change is...
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...great privilege, many people do not exercise their right to vote. These people may believe that their vote doesn’t hold enough power to make any significant difference. This mentality is understandable, considering in 2000, George W. Bush was elected the next President of the United States despite having lost the popular vote to Al Gore. The electoral college has faced heavy scrutiny, because it gives more weight to lesser-populated areas, placing undue influence in random areas across the country. Despite these issues, all eligible American citizens should exercise their right to vote....
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...contribute in voting. It has remained a mounting difficulties with appropriate voters not registering and object their ballot. Over the decades, Americans have vanished trace with the antiquity of voting. Voting for in determinations supports in providing underpinning on why society do not participate in voting. Analyses provide tangible influences with why societies do not vote with illustration clusters support. Discovery of behaviors will show the unabridged development with the existing system supports with the American community. The 2008 elections enquiry provides awareness with the diverse motives from highest to lowest. Giving some understanding on the origin of the unruly and outcome resolutions to battle these problems. Examination can transform that are currently in domicile and assuring voting contributions on the ability to speak on the issues and distresses. Observing at other countries for potential solutions to the problem can be one riposte for the United States voting delinquent. Using tads and shards can support with altering he existing classification that does not work. Without transformation, the voting contribution will endure to diminish. The history behind the voting in America helps wonder why this pass civil liberty has fallen to many Americans waist side in today’s world. As America was still an assortment of British colonies, voting was extremely restricted. the only properly owning white men were able to vote which left out women, poor white men, slaves...
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...Third parties in the United States do not win, but they tend to keep elections interesting. Although third parties bring in votes for themselves, a majority of them have extreme views on issues. These types of views cannot put a party at the top of a nation that mainly consists of moderate individuals. America has one of the most advanced democracies and as a result has developed the two party system. The reason why a two-party system overpowers a three-party system is because, ideally, the constitution only has two sides to it, the opposing and the supporting. There are numerous third parties, the most successful one being the Libertarian party. While the United States is largely a two party system, third parties have been around for hundreds...
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...The Constitutional Convention was an important event because it is what lead us to the government we have now. The different compromises are what lead to the methods that were used and still being used nowadays The Constitutional Convention was a meeting that took place in Philadelphia in 1787. The purpose of that meeting was to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. There were fifty five men who were delegates, their purpose was to have the federal government strengthen. The delegates did not think that rewriting the Articles of Confederation would actually work out. Eventually they wrote the U.S. Constitution. George Washington was chosen to lead the convention. All of the delegates had to agree that every state would get one vote. They did not want anyone to know about what was going on during the convention meetings. The delegates made sure to keep everything a secret, anyone who was not a delegate were not allowed to attend any meetings. We have no written documents because they kept everything a secret of what had occurred during the meetings. The only details we have today is from a notebook that belonged to James Madison. However, James Madison is known as the “Father of the Constitution.” He had also helped write the federalist papers. At the Constitutional Convention James Madison had done a very good job. When the delegates had to decided to write the “Bill of Rights” he was against it. James Madison was afraid that the future people would just go by those...
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...agreement could be achieved. The Constitution has 136 articles and , like most constitutions, consists of a dogmatic and organic part : the dogmatic part will state the individual guarantees and covers the first 28 articles , while the organic part refers to the type of government and governing bodies, the division and organization of the three powers ( executive, legislative and judicial), the powers of governance and distribution of powers between levels of government , among other important topics contained in Articles 30-136 , complementing the individual rights . The division of the powers, is necessary in order to fight against absolutism and establish a government with guarantees, this has become the basic and main principal of the organization of the modern constitutional states. This division implies de separation of the state’s bodies into three different and independent groups, and each one is constituted that in a form, the different elements that form part of this compromise keep unit with each other and gives them a character of powers. This separation of...
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...However, over the years, the Civil Rights movement has been a politicized movement for the push of candidates and parties on all sides. They played a role with the southern states seceding from the USA, and the Civil War. Many people don't know that for a long time in fact blacks did play important roles through many important times, and weren't just mere slaves, as most think today. The reason for such a political polarization on the issue, for a wide multitude of reasons. This paper will sort through the beginning of America to more modern times to show how different political parties and policies shaped the civil rights movement and made it take almost 200 years for equality to start taking a foothold from the founding of America. Many seem to think America was founded only by white men wearing wigs. I found looking through history books over years, and looking at paintings of many of the important founders, and in turn the black founders. I will only point out a few and their accomplishments as they are so numerous: Peter Salem, a black hero at the battle of bunker hill, and saved scores of american lives that day. Reverend Jonas Clark and Prince Estabrook were both important in the Battle of Lexington, with the “shot heard around the world”. He called his congregation to the mixed church, and then rallied his black and white patriots, to fight the british. 150 Americans fought, with 18 dead. Prince Estabrook was also known as one of the first black men to fight...
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