...Electoral College Debate Introduction As said by Juan Williams, a journalist for FOX News, “In the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore got more votes than George W. Bush, but still lost the election. The Supreme Court's ruling in Florida gave Bush that pivotal state, and doomed Gore to lose the Electoral College. That odd scenario - where the candidate with the most votes loses - has happened three times in U.S. history.” Although forty-five U.S. presidents have been elected and this scenario has only happened three times, it still leads to scrutiny, questions, and arguments about the effectiveness of the Electoral College. These disputes have gone on for quite a while as to which method of choosing the president is the best option. The electoral...
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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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...The Electoral college is a body, in the U.S, that represents each state individually, who cast votes on the election for president and vice president. The electoral is a process not a place, that the founding fathers formed into the constitution for a compromise between all states for president. The college consist of 538 electors and only 270 votes for a president to win the election, which means out of four million people, 270 people pick the president. This might sound like a huge gap, but most representatives vote with the people. When all popular votes from citizens are collected, the representatives choose the electors. With a meeting for voting for the vice president and president, and counting of the electoral votes by congress....
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...is the Electoral College – an indirect voting system and not a national popular vote. This system was implemented by the Founding Fathers about 200 years ago (Shea 2005, 4-6) In recent times the debate about whether the Electoral College is still an effective system considering the circumstances the United States has to face now, is arising more 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 ...
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...The Electoral 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...
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...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...
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...the nominating conventions, each candidate campaigns across the country addressing issues that affect the country and ways in solving controversial issues. Next, a presidential debate will occur in which each candidate will present their concerns and solutions to the problem. Usually, the debates are used to persuade the citizens into voting for him or her. During the election period, voters are welcome to head to voting polls to cast their vote. Days before election day, early voters flood the polls to cast their vote to avoid the crowd during election day....
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...establish a system of indirect election. Over time, debates took place on how to ensure the best candidate was elected. Many people favored a popular vote, while many others favored a Congressional appointment. Therefore, the Electoral College was established as a compromise between the two. (Federal Register) The Electoral College contains 538 electors who vote to determine the President, as well as Vice-President, of the United States. This consists of 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 electors for the District of Columbia that was granted by the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution. Typically,...
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...The electoral college is pretty Important to the United States of America. It helps us elect who our next president will be from the two candidates that are campaigning to become the next president. The electoral college provides a clear and indefinite result on who the next president would be. The electoral college was created by our founding fathers. The electoral college also makes sure that every state plays a role on who the United States's citizens new president would be. There is a lot of debate on wether the electoral college should be abolished or not but, I believe that the electoral college should not be abolished. First the electoral college provides a clear message on who the president will be so there is no confusion or conflict....
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...this election, where both candidates are corrupt and unfit. Also, I feel as though the electoral college should be abolished. Voting is a waste of time because it is the electoral college who ultimately chooses the president and not the American people.Many people don’t understand the logistics of the electoral college and just how much they impact the lives of Americans. In...
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...MacBride attended Princeton and Harvard University achieving his law degree. His diverse careers include writing history books, co-founder of a successful television series, and failed run for the U.S. Presidency in 1976 under the Libertarian Party. Before 1972, MacBride favored the Republican Party until he exchanged his views for the Libertarians. Even in his mid-twenties, when the author wrote, The American Electoral College his viewpoint skewed towards a conservative/libertarian viewpoint. This book elucidates the founding fathers of the United States political viewpoints in framing the Electoral College in 1787. As these scholars embark in creating, an architectural conception that determines how to select the President of the United...
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...THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE by William C. Kimberling, Deputy Director FEC Office of Election Administration (The views expressed here are solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal Election Commission or any division thereof.) In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that: • was composed of thirteen large and small States jealous of their own rights and powers and suspicious of any central national government contained only 4,000,000 people spread up and down a thousand miles of Atlantic seaboard barely connected by transportation or communication (so that national campaigns were impractical even if they had been thought desirable) believed, under the influence of such British political thinkers as Henry St John Bolingbroke, that political parties were mischievous if not downright evil, and felt that gentlemen should not campaign for public office (The saying was "The office should seek the man, the man should not seek the office."). • • • How, then, to choose a president without political parties, without national campaigns, and without upsetting the carefully designed balance between the presidency and the Congress on one hand and between the States and the federal government on the other? Origins of the Electoral College The...
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...that they are ’doomed to failure’, in particular through recent years. This can be explained due to the vast sum in financial demands in which third parties cannot meet due to the inability to gain credible reconciliation to obtain huge sums of funds, and thus continue to live in the shadow of the Republicans and Democrats; two growing leading parties. Also, other factors like state legislation which encourage third party barriers, such as evidently shown in New York were for a party to be placed on the ballot paper it must reach a certain number of signatures. Through the electoral system of FPTP encouraging a two party system, and the two leading parties being seen as ’umbrella parties’ in which there is little room for a third party to offer an ideological stance on policies which has not already been covered. Means it is highly unlikely for a third party to succeed as evidently shown within the debates in 2000 with Gore verses Nader, where straight ticket voting also contributes to the third party failures. However, third parties must be credited in that it has proven to be worthy of success, like in 1996 where Jess Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota. Third parties are largely disadvantaged and doomed to fail due to their inability to raise a substantial amount of funds or ‘war chest’. this is firstly, simply down to the matter of third parties are not widely known, as the Democrats or Republicans so Americans would logically be apprehensive to fund and donate...
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...The factors that influence the founders in creating the Electoral College were brought on by lessons learned in the early elections the result of those factors are still used to this day, two centuries later. The founding fathers had a lot to consider when it came to selecting how they would choose the leader for their newly formed government. The first president was chosen by the founding fathers before the election of 1800 in which the candidate with the most votes was elected president and the runner up was to be the vice president. This was proven to be a problem due to the different views of the parties that were running against one another. Having just won its independence from Great Britain and only having the Monarchy as a model to obtain guidance it was very important that the founding fathers looked at every angle of picking the person to lead the country at the time. The wrong type of man at the helm of the country could be devastating to what the founding fathers had worked on establishing. If the people were to have a say in who was to be president the electoral college could be seen as a way to protect them from a person that could persuade them with words but truly have a hidden agenda or not have the best interest of the country in mind a “demigod “. Adolf Hitler is a good example of this type of person becoming a leader that was able to persuade an entire country into trying to take over the world and this kind of person was exactly what our founding fathers...
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...The Electoral College (EC) was established in Article II of the Constitution and amended by the 12th Amendment in 1804. Each state gets a number of electors equal to its number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives plus one for each of its two U.S. Senators creating a total of 538 electoral votes. A majority winner must receive 270 votes to be elected. With a few minor exceptions, the Electoral College gives all of the electoral votes for each state to the plurality winner in that state, regardless of the margin of victory. This "winner takes all" arrangement at the state level can elect a President who loses the popular vote, as was the case in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. Firstly, one reason supporting the abolishment of the EC is that it suppresses the popular will. This is because it may allow a candidate to win despite only receiving a minority of votes across the country as a whole. For example, in the 2000 elections Gore received approximately 500,000 more of the popular vote than Bush winning in most major cities and urban counties. However, Bush received more electoral votes throughout the rest of the nation winning more than three times the amount of counties than Gore. It also suppresses the popular will through faithless electors. These are members of the House of Representatives who were chosen to vote for a party but do not vote for their state’s preferred candidate. For example, in the 2000 election, Barbara Simmons abstained voting for Al Gore to protest...
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