Our founding father of the United States of America created the electoral college as an important part of the election process for the President and Vice President of the United States. Although many people have argued against the electoral college during this last election, it should not be abolished because it gives every state an equal voice. During this last election, there has been a lot of controversy between the electoral college and the popular vote. Some young voters felt like their votes didn’t count because Hillary won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes. There has been protest all around the country at college campuses and government buildings fighting for the electoral college to be questioned as a viable presidential selection process. They protest that Hillary should have been elected President of the United States of America based on the popular voting method. Hillary won the popular …show more content…
It is an equalizing force in the presidential election, which ensures a voice to every state and county around in America. President Trump won 3,084 of the 3,141 counties in the United States. Clinton won just 57 of those counties. If California was eliminated from the voting results, Clinton would have lost the popular vote by nearly one million votes. Clinton won the popular vote by just 2.1% margin, but President Trump won 98% of the county’s popular opinion. “The electoral college system contributes the cohesiveness of the country, requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected.”(Kimberling). In conclusion, a few of the largest cities in America gave Hillary the popular vote, but the electoral college helped the true voice of the people be heard. It helped represent the small towns, the rural areas, the sparsely populated states. I believe that the electoral college gives all American hope that their voice is being
The term Electoral College gained a vast amount popularity in the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016 which brought many controversial arguments in favor and opposed to the Electoral College. If you haven’t heard or don’t know much about it, as a voter and an American citizen, it is important to know what it is and how it affects our community.
Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.
The Electoral College: a system that the U.S. has used over the years to choose representatives and is a compromise between election by a vote. The Electoral College should not be abolished for three reasons. These reasons are: The system helps candidates who struggle with winning the Popular Vote; with Electoral Votes, it gives the little states enough power and votes, and if we abolish The Electoral College, we weaken the Political Two-Party-System. And if not weakened, then destroyed. These reasons will show that the Electoral College should not be abolished, and should be kept.
It was created to allow all citizens to participate in elections directly while also giving smaller states some leverage and weight in the presidential elections. The electoral college also allowed constituents a chance to participate directly in the election for chief executive by voting for the electors, or people selected by citizens to cast electoral votes in the presidential elections. It also allowed for the smaller, less populated states to have more pull in the presidential election than they would if the president was simply elected by popular vote.
The Electoral College makes it possible for citizens’ votes in certain states to essentially not matter at all. Since all of the electoral votes go toward the candidate that wins the popular vote in a state, if a state has a majority of people who vote for a certain party and a voter votes for the other party, his vote does not have any effect on the election outcome. The Electoral College system is leaving hundreds of thousands of vote’s discounted and irrelevant. The Electoral College twists each vote’s worth per state, causing the nation’s desires to be misrepresented. The Electoral College does not always show a distribution of support. A candidate could win the electoral votes
The Electoral College is a system that creates a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in congress and a popular vote from the citizens of the U.S. This results in a total of 538 electors from congress and to win the presidential election you must have over 270 Electoral votes. There is people who do not like the electoral college because the system is old fashioned and not democratic according to the two articles In Defense of the Electoral College by Richard A. Posner and Time to End the Electoral College by The New York Times. There is people who do agree with the Electoral College process. The Electoral College should not be abolished because the system gives an opportunity to political parties to express themselves in the American government, gives small states a chance in the elections, and the system is determined by the constitution. If presidential candidate does not get over 270 votes then the House of Representatives decides with votes from the top three other presidential candidates with the most electoral votes and same goes for vice presidential election except Senate decides with only top two.
Electing government officials is a major part of being an American. The citizens of the United States have the privilege of voting for their officials , representing America’s democracy. Although a big misconception on this is that the people actually do not vote directly for who becomes elected president but rather who gets to elect the next president. The Electoral College has been in place since 1804 and continues to be the system the United States uses to elect the president. The Electoral College is filled with history, a lengthy process , and questionable arguments on its validity.
Established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Electoral College is a system utilized in The United States of America to select the President and Vice President. This process was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787, when the Constitution was written. The original purpose of the electoral system was to ensure that those who select the leaders of this nation were the most knowledgeable and informed people that America had to offer. The electors - the elected officials that make up the Electoral College - are elected to office through a general election wherein the entire national population has the right to vote. The President of the United States, however, is actually elected to office by the Electoral College only, regardless of the popular vote of the citizens in general. Thus, the Presidential election is the only federal election in our nation where the vote of the citizenry does not directly determine the victor. Despite the fact that this electoral system has been in place and operational for over two hundred years, the Electoral College is looked upon by some as an honorable system, whereas others view it as faulty. The Electoral College is not fair and equitable because it is based on population, it is not trusted by the people, and it is unjust to the wishes of the citizens.
John Samples, author of “In Defense of the Electoral College,” says that the Electoral College is an “important part” of the federalist system of the United States, claiming that it allows for the important principle of state rights. “The Electoral College,” he writes, “makes sure that the states count in presidential elections.” He is not incorrect in that statement- states definitely do count, but they have a much bigger impact than they should. The president is not for the states, but rather for the
One of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the United States was the creation of the Constitution. It was created by the Framers who included many important and specific rules to make sure that the government would be able to sustain itself. The Idea of the Electoral College was first introduced in this constitution as a way to make sure that there was a buffer between the population and the selection of a President. They did not want a dictatorship to arise due to a manipulative candidate. In recent history, the Electoral College has been a very controversial topic. Many people do not agree with it and believe that it should be abolished due to varying factors such as the unequal distribution of votes per state. When the Framers first created the Electoral College, I believe that there hopes of what it would become have not been met and that they would not be pleased with it in today's government.
However, it has withstood over 200 years with minimal issues. The Electoral College produces a president who appeals across regions of the nation while also remembering the importance of listening to the voices of minorities and individual states. The Electoral College was created to protect the liberties laid out in the Constitution and secure our nation’s form of government—a democratic republic (i.e. representative democracy). Although several alterations have been proposed and some opponents wish to abolish it, the Electoral College still stands, able to fulfill its imperative task of selecting the nation’s
The United States, well known for its democracy, holds elections every four years to elect its President. Every American citizen over the age of 18 has a right to cast a vote in the presidential election. The voting process, although it seems easy and straightforward, can be very complicated. In the 2000 election, Al Gore captured the majority of votes, but George Bush won. The reason for this strange outcome and why Al Gore lost was because of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is voting system where different states are given a certain amount of votes in the election, and which ever candidate wins a state, is given that state’s votes. The Electoral College is out of date, and should be replaced by the Popular Vote system,
As I said above the Electoral College has been how we elected presidents since the beginning of our country, this means it doesn’t come without merits. It gives little states more representation, states like Iowa and Wyoming, not small in stature but rather in population. This means Wyoming, which has a population of roughly 586,107, has three votes, two from its two Senators and one from its representative in the House of Representatives. This still gives Wyoming some power, while states like California have 38,558,711 more people, but only 52 more votes. Without a system giving Wyoming some votes, highly populated states would have even more power. This means people running for president would only visit the states with the most people, which translates to the most votes. Another aspect of the Electoral College not often explored is it’s consistency. What I mean by this is we always get a president, not matter
The Electoral College has the job of officially electing the United States President. After the popular vote is counted by each state, the "electors" will then cast their vote. Electors are apportioned to each state and the District of Columbia.The Electoral College system was established in the constitution by the Founding Fathers. This system forms the very beginning and basis of the United States' national elections and is; therefore, important to this country's history. It is made up of 538 members and a candidate must receive a majority of 270 electoral votes to win the election.The Electoral College was great when it was first introduced because voters did not have the advanced technology that we have today. They were not able to learn enough about the candidates to truly know which one to vote for. The electors on the other hand were slightly more educated than the average American and their job was to learn about these candidates so they could make the smart decision and represent their state well when it came time. Voters now have the access to education, television, radio, the internet, and newspapers to learn about their potential president. This clearly shows that the Electoral College is less useful to our nation than it used to be. The people in our world today want to be well represented and have their vote actually count, but with this system still in use they are not getting their full representation.
For over 200 years the United States have elected their presidents by a process called the Electoral College. Each state votes for one candidate and then a winner is decided by this process. Many American citizens believe the Electoral College is not fair and the President should be elected via the popular vote. However other citizens believe the Electoral College is the best way to elect a president. This is a common debate topic since the most recent election, where for the fourth time in American history the candidate with the most popular votes did not win the election. Many call into question if their votes really count and if the president is not the candidate with the most popular votes, is the President truly representing who the majority of the country wanted in office.