Arguments Against The Electoral College

For as long as American citizens can remember the assigned method of election for the United States presidency would be the use of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a process not a place or institution, in this essay I will briefly describe the Electoral College process as well as describe some pros and cons of the electoral college and lastly, I will attempt to answer the controversial question, if you could improve the electoral college, would I choose to abolish or reform the system?

Despite the Electoral College system being founded by the founding fathers in America and being there as long as the Constitution exists, many people still do not have sufficient knowledge on how it works. The Electoral College does not provide honest presidential elections rather it has the potential to undo the will of people at any point from the selection of electors to the vote tallying in Congress (Shaw, 3). Electoral College in the United States has played a major role in depressing the voter's turnout. Every State is given an equal number of electoral votes despite the population and in turn, the system has put in place no measure to encourage the voters to take part in the elections. Besides, the system distorts

The Electoral College is an excuse of the electoral process, proving itself to be undemocratic, false in representation, and harmful to third-parties. Therefore, the Electoral College should be abolished, and the process should rely on the popular vote to have the leading judgement in the election procedure for a new president. The Electoral College has proven that a candidate may not need to win the popular vote of the people of the nation in order to win the presidential election. But first, beforehand, let me introduce the system in which the Electoral Process is based upon. The Electoral Process is the government’s created system of indirect voting in order to elect the nation’s president.

The voting process in America appears straightforward, but it is a very complex, complicated system. The Electoral College is America’s current voting system. The Electoral College still serves its intended purpose, but with increasing political activity among Americans it has caused a need to reform this process. Research suggests that the Electoral College system should be amended because it poorly illustrates democracy, is outdated and the majority of Americans are in favor of abolishing the system.

In this country, we hold elections every four years to select the president. The founding fathers of our country established the electoral college to give the original thirteen states a fair voice in the election process. This country electoral called the electoral college into question on more the one occasion. In the most recent election, President-elect Donald Trump won the electoral vote over Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. This election has sent the country into an uproar and citizens of the United States are now challenging the legitimacy of the electoral college process. This paper will examine whether this process is reliable and valid when choosing the leadership of this country.

In the “Point: Abolishing the Electoral College,” Benjamin Bolinger, a licensed lawyer who can practice law in Colorado and Pennsylvania, argues that the Electoral College needs to be abolished for the American democracy. Bolinger examines that some states with a little population have large number of electoral college compare to those states with larger populations. He believes that the Electoral College damages the value of democratic government by leaving

Another major fault of the Electoral College is the fact that it allows for a tie during the official Presidential race while on the other hand a popular vote would almost never result in a tie. In order to win the Presidency a candidate must receive a minimum of 269 electoral votes during the official election. There are exactly 538 electoral votes available for each candidate to win, one for each member of the Senate and the House of Representatives combined. The math shows that 538 divided by two is exactly 269 votes, one vote shy of the needed majority to become President. If each candidate was voted for 269 times during the official elections, no candidate would become President right away. Founding Fathers also did the math when the Electoral

There’s a saying that is thrown around from time to time stating that “if something is not broke don’t fix it.” It seems to be thrown around all the time after a president has been chosen in America usually by the winning side, meanwhile, the opposing side always complains how unfair the presidential election is. Some people say this is the way our founding fathers chose our country to always work and there is no reason to go back to tweak the process. To better understand what certain electoral college supporters, mean by not changing what the founding fathers wanted and what they drew up one has to go back in history.

The electoral college is an institution that every four years is in charge of electing our President, and Vice President. In school we are always taught that its the right and fair way to elect our president, but why? When the Founding Fathers created the process in 1787 along with the constitution certain founders such as James Madison thought the process would hurt the south and under a prior agreement set by southern slave states allowed states to count slaves as votes. This gave Southern States the majority of the electoral votes. In the first distribution of electoral votes Virginia(a heavy slave state) came out the big winner with over a quarter of the US votes where a state like Pennsylvania(a free state) had far less. The pro-Southern

The Constitution Convention of 1787 gave birth to the system of Electoral College. According to the Constitution, electors per state are equal to the number of seats each state holds in the Congress, which include the Senate and the House of Representative delegations. California holds the most Electoral which is 54 electors. However, with every census the numbers of each states electoral change due to the process called reapportionment. Reapportionment can be defined as the “the process by which congressional districts are redrawn and seats are redistributed among states in the house ; reapportionment occurs every ten years.” The Electoral College should not be preserved because it is unfair due to the fact that candidates who do not win plurality of the votes can still get electoral votes. It is unfair to depend on the 538 Electors to become the voice of three hundred and nineteen million people.

It is difficult to completely understand and in a way appreciate what the Electoral College is if you don’t understand it. Therefore, this paper will go in depth as to how the voting process works in the United States, with a main focus on the Electoral College.  I will start by talking about the background, what challenges and problems it was trying to solve, how it came to be and who came up with such idea. Secondly, I would talk about the advantages the Electoral College possesses, such as it keeps small states as viable participants, it maintains division of power and how it’s beneficial to the candidates and their campaign. But as with everything, there are also some disadvantages that come with such, example, ignoring the will of the

many Americans still have a misunderstanding of the process of the electoral system and its flaws. Striking defects include smaller states having an advantage over larger states and there being a basis of a winner takes all system. The United States should not have an Electoral College, but It would be exceptionally difficult to completely eradicate the electoral system, considering it would require a constitutional amendment ratified by 3/4 of the states. However, we should work to at least modify it.

Since its foundation, The Electoral College has dealt with a dispute between those who trust in the benefits of the electoral procedure and those who view it as inimical. I on the other hand support the perspective of the Electoral College being unfavorable and believe that the Electoral College should be abolished, as it evolves around numerous dilemmas, including the concernment of the popular

Every four years a new, or sometimes veteran president, gets elected by the American people via the Electoral College. For as long as America has used this system, only five candidates have been elected despite losing popular vote (Gore). Regardless of how great a past president who won office lacking the popular vote was, our nation's leader should be elected based on a popular vote system, not on a voting method that favors largely populated states. Furthermore, with the degree of citizens in America on a continuous increase, it is time to make a change to the twelfth amendment with our outlook as a country in mind.

The United States is globally recognized as a democratic nation, granting voting rights to its citizens that place the power of government in their hands. This power is held dear by U.S. citizens nationwide, as well as other nations who strive for democracy and recognition. Unfortunately, this universally recognized right is quite erroneous. The United States uses a system called the Electoral College to elect the President and Vice President. This system consists of 538 electors that choose the President for the people – nullifying the concept of democracy. Therefore, the United States should abandon the Electoral College system for Presidential elections because it places the power of government in the hands or politicians and political machines, while revoking power from the hands of the citizens – from the hands of the people.