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Electoral College

Decent Essays

Certain philosophies of the Electoral College infringe on the democracy that the United States of America stands for; however, the Electoral College was put in place by the Founding Fathers for a reason, and under the Constitution that reason should be respected. American Democracy suffers under the overbearing nature of this voting system, but it is a fact that a pure democracy would never work. Under this system, there would always be an inferior minority. Reforming the system is a solution to this problem of whether or not the Electoral College should continue or cease to exist. There should still be a system of electors, but instead of the warped winner-take-all system, the votes should be given proportionally to the popular vote. This …show more content…

Creating the Electoral College system proved trying because “the Founders struggled to satisfy each state’s demand for greater representation while attempting to balance popular sovereignty against the risk posed to the minority from majoritarian rule” (Destroying the Electoral College: The Anti-Federalist National Popular Vote Scheme). They overcame these difficulties and tried to satisfy both small and large states. The disagreement that paved the way for the Electoral College was whether Congress should choose the president or if the masses should vote. In the end, the three reasons for which the Electoral College was created were: to “work without political parties, cover both the nominating and electing phases of presidential selection, and produce a nonpartisan president” (American Government: Roots and Reform, O’Connor, Yanus, and Sabato). These essential rationales prove that the Electoral College cannot be done away with by amending the …show more content…

A democracy is not democratic if the people feel as though their opinions do not matter. The existing Electoral College system oppresses the people by making them believe their votes do not count. A democratic government should not allow the popular vote in a presidential election to be overshadowed by electoral votes. For example, some larger states with more electoral votes tend to side with either the Republican or Democratic party; therefore, if republicans who live within a heavily democratic state, such as Massachusetts or California, then they feel their votes are irrelevant. In recent elections, the voter turnout hovered around 60% (FairVote, www.fairvote.org). Specifically in this past 2016 election, 131,375,500 voters out of an eligible 218,959,000 completed their civic duty and utilized their ability to vote (Voting Turnout Statistics, Statistic Brain, www.statisticbrain.com). The fact that eligible voters do not feel obliged to use the right so graciously given to them by those who fought for their right to vote proves that there is a flaw in the system. This flaw is the winner-take-all clause. A state that is almost fifty-fifty in the popular vote with one party pulling ahead should not award every single electoral vote to that one candidate. This system allows for a nation to be divided, and only one side to heavily prevail. A proposed solution to

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