SHOULD THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BE ABOLISHED?
Many people ask themselves this question: should the electoral system be abolished? Some answers are yes, others are no, others maybe don’t know. I think that Electoral College should not be abolished but instead it should be reformed. First of all let’s define what the Electoral College is and how it works. Many do not believe that voters are not well informed about the candidates and cannot make good elections, which is why the Electoral College was seen as a way to help with this issue. “The Electoral College, is the institution (whose members are selected by whatever means the state legislature chooses) that is responsible for selecting the president of the United States.” (Bond, pg. G-4) The
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The Electoral College has receive many critics as to it “Violates the core democratic principle of political equality has the potential of violate majority rule.” (Bond, pg. 346) and it does because states are not receiving electoral votes and weight on their votes equality, some states as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida have more weight on their votes than states with larger population like California and Texas. This makes me more afraid of the political campaign of Donald Trump and I believe with this process he has most chances to win the presidency, since most people who will not vote for him live in California and Texas. In table 10.7 found in our textbook we can see that the Electoral college have failed the democratic core principle of majority rule in two cases, one was the time when Nixon won the popular vote but Kennedy won the electoral college vote and therefore the presidency, the second case was when Al Gore won the popular vote but George Bush won the presidency by the Electoral college. Some may say that this failure to choose the president is not too bad at all since it has a low percent of failure to choose the same candidate who won the popular vote, but still it violate majority
The result is that in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least populous jurisdictions of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the state of Florida.(Longley) Each Floridian's potential vote, then, carried about one third the weight of a potential vote in the other states listed. Shouldn't each individuals vote carry the same amount of weight regardless of where they live? Another result of the Electoral College is that it tends to give a false representation of victory. In 1980 Ronald Reagan won just 50.7 percent of the popular vote but won the electoral vote by more than 90 percent making it appear as a landslide.(Gregg) Is this fair representation for the American people to believe?
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.
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.
At the end of every president’s term, a new president is voted on by the citizens in the United States. Each state can cast a vote on a presidential candidate for each senator and representative that they have in Congress. Through this process a new president is picked every four to eight years. This process is called the electoral college. The process of electoral college has been established and has been continuing since the approval of the Constitution. Even a century later after being created, the electoral college is still used today. Born out of the Constitution, the Electoral College is still obsolete; it should be abolished. Regardless, eliminating the Electoral College will likely never happen because of political parties.
Not all systems are perfect, nor is the Electoral College. As we seen in the 2016 presidential election, the popular vote may not necessarily get the majority in the Electoral College resulting in what is criticized not to be as democratic when the popular vote winner, Hillary Clinton in this case, was the loser of the election. The outcome of the election can be dictated by the electors and in some cases not reflect the will of the people. Also, the winner-take-all clause creates a possibility that the popular vote gets nothing even in a situation when is it very close to half the votes. All states except for
The electoral college system is unnecessary at this point in time. When the electoral college system was thought up in the 1700s by the framers of the constitution, they believed that electors to represent the peoples’ vote would be more efficient since it was extremely difficult to get information to and from places quickly, meaning that citizens would be late on news. To to combat that, the framers created the electoral college system, a system where electors elected by a political party would represent the peoples’ vote, gather in Washington, and vote on their behalf. Because of the lack of technology, this method wasn’t a bad way to vote for presidents efficiently. But technology improved, negating the problem of Americans not knowing the news in Washington and concerning their candidates. Today, Americans have access to current and reliable news regarding their candidates and are generally up-to-date with politics. So with the technological advances present today, why do we still employ an electoral college to vote for our next president? There isn’t a pressing reason to keep it.
First, The Electoral College prevents majority rule and should not be abolished. ”The Electoral College gives states with small populations a measure of protection against domination by states with large populations. It levels the political playing field a bit” (Williams, Walter E.). It is said that Hillary Clinton won popular vote majority. Therefore, if the nation were not encumbered with outdated electoral college. Clinton, instead of our present one, would be the next president of the United States. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote just as Clinton supposedly did. Such outcomes have led to calls to desert the Constitution's Article two provisions for the state electors to select presidents. Before the U.S. deserts the Electoral College, let's consider the purpose it performs. According to 2013 Census Data, Nine states- California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and Michigan have populations
Democratic theorist, Robert Dahl once said, “…every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.” This quote greatly summarizes what the Electoral College system means; every person in the United States is guaranteed one vote. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to elect who serves in the government, and we are given that opportunity through this system. This is what the Founding Fathers came up with in order to solve the problems they faced over 200 years ago. However, some have opposed this system is not fit for this democracy, and argue that other systems would work more fairly. On the contrary, I strongly believe that the Electoral College system should be kept because it is the fairest way to elect the President.
There is one main part of the U.S. Constitution in which I deem amendable, dealing with the presidency. The matter at hand is how the president is elected, amendment twelve. The way, in which we elect the president of the United States and as well our Vice President, should ultimately be changed. The Electoral College system should be abolished. NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE should elect our Commander-in-Chief. The president should ultimately be elected by, as the constitution states, “We, the People”. The elected President as well as the vice president located on the same ticket would be the one who gets the most votes, not the majority vote. The presidential campaign is skewed in two primary ways by the Electoral College. These being: presidential
Fellow senators, the electoral college should be eliminated as the primary method of determining our president and Vice President for three key reasons. First, because the electoral college is an archaic method that does properly represent today's day and age. Second, because the electoral college gives too much power to swing states over the rest of the states and finally, because electoral college can clash with the popular vote which then leads to the wrong person being elected as president and Vice President.
“Our vote will not count! Our voices are not being heard!”, is a rallying cry heard at this moment in our nation as the conversation of whether or not we should keep the electoral college as our founders had designed it is taking place. Disregarding what our architects of the constitution wrote, there is a change in the air for how we as a country vote and decide who becomes our next leader. As it stands now, the electoral college votes for the presidency, which can lead to frustration for the many who vote. The last election should be a case in point. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote while Donald Trump actually achieved the presidency by receiving the required 270 electoral votes.
At least a decade after the United States was founded, many men gathered at a constitutional convention to talk about how America should choose a president. The Electoral College was put in place because the government did not trust the people to make a direct decision for our country. Today, some people are wondering if the electoral college should be abolished, letting the popular vote make the decision. There are three main ideas that help support why the electoral college should not be abolished. First, It helps keep the right people running for president. Next, it preserves the federal structure, and finally, it keeps a level playing field of how many votes each state gets in an election.
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.
Are Americans really in control of their democracy? People all around the world associate America with the ideals of democracy, or power being held by the people. However, in order to choose the supreme leader of the country, Americans do not directly have a voice to elect their best candidate. Instead, they use a system called the Electoral College, to give more power to the state, rather than the individual citizen. Although, Americans have proven this system to be flawed, as ever since the turn of the twenty-first century, multiple elections between 2000 and 2019 have elected candidates against the overall nation’s opinion. The Electoral College blurs the general American view of their preferred presidential candidate. The presidential election can be more accurate and democratic by ordinary voters or members of Congress convincing lawmakers to agree to combine the popular vote with electoral votes, creating a proportional system which would best represent the nation’s views on the election.
Vote for her as president, she provides better healthcare. Vote for him as president, he would make a more vigorous tax system. The classical saying heard during election time. People line up at 6 am to fill their ballot for the next president. But there is a catch that is not technically would could help your candidate win. The electoral college represented by the population. The two party system is a political system that is still here today. What the electoral college is the body of people representing their states of the US. They cast their votes for the president. The number of electoral college depends on the population of that state. The candidate who becomes president needs to get 270 electoral college votes. The Winner-take-all is whoever wins the most votes wins all the delegates. The Wasted Vote theory is when voters pick one of the major parties. They think that their vote for the independent party wouldn’t matter according to how popular they are. The Democrats are people who support what a democracy stands for. The Republicans are people who elected individual who represent the citizen body. Checks and balances are a way to much sure that one part of the government has too much power. Our government needs this systems for our nation to continue our regime. The electoral college shouldn’t be abolished because its has a stable 2 party system, it provides a guarantee for the results of the final president, and its supports what our democracy is.