Every year on the fourth of November an election is taken place to select the next president of the United States. Just recently, in the 2016 election, Hilary Clinton won the popular vote and Donald Trump won the electoral vote, in which he was elected president. This made many Americans question if the electoral college system is outdated and unfair and if the direct popular vote is a more effective way of electing the president. This has happened twice where the candidate who has the popular vote did not win the presidency. The problem that has arisen is that the rules of the presidential election need to be replaced so that it will reflect the true opinion of the U.S. citizens. According to Edwards III, under the constitution, the …show more content…
Every state has two senators and the number of representatives that is proportional to its population (Schumaker 12). Congress decides who they want to dictate how many electors each state has based it off of the state 's population (Edwards 14). The Constitution requires that winning candidate must have 270 of the Electoral College votes. For instance, during the 2004 election, Bush had collected 271 electoral votes if he had two fewer votes and Gore two more than both of the candidates would have had fifty percent of the Electoral College votes (Schumaker 12).
What is a popular vote? A popular vote is a way for a candidate to get a majority of votes for an election. The citizens of the U.S. vote on a presidential candidate.
How was the Electoral College Founded? The Electoral College was constructed to be a compromise between the different ways of selecting the president. Originally the delegates of the Constitutional Convention wanted Congress to select eh president, while others preferred the direct popular election (Schumaker 13). While the Constitutional Convention proceeded, one of the founders established a "Committee of the Eleven" to create a compromise for selecting the president (Schumaker 13). The reason for the idea of the Electoral College many opposed to the direct popular vote because people feared that the less popular vote would feel inferior to other states (Schumaker 13). This method was widely accepted there was
The Electoral College has been the basis for nearly all of our presidential elections, but it is time to update to a more logical system.
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.
The Electoral College is the name for the electors who nominally choose the president and vice president of the United States. Each of the states receives a certain number of electors, which is determined by the total number of senators and representatives it sends to the U.S. Congress. Therefore, each state has at least 3 electors. The Electoral College was devised by the Framers of the Constitution as a procedure to elect the president by the people, at least indirectly. The framers came up with this procedure for many reasons. Such reasons included the lack of information to make a good choice by the people and it was also a way to control the power of the people. Although the Electoral
The candidates that win the popular vote should be elected President because more people in the United States want them to be the next president. This is not how the Electoral College works but this is how it should be. This highlights that the Electoral College is an ineffective way to determine the President because it does not reflect the will of the
Our Founding Fathers’ idea of an Electoral College is not the same as our current Electoral College as amendments have changed their structure and function. Despite the changes and adaptations to our country’s changes, the Electoral College is still the method that selects presidents and vice presidents. Exploration of the structure and function of the Electoral College will provide an opportunity to understand its formation and operation while the debate between the Electoral College and popular vote usage and its effects on election results will provide an understanding of issues and misalignment with the popular vote while the understanding of how an individual’s vote is valued by the Electoral College will provide a clear demonstration that the vote informs the Electoral College for their duties.
`Every four years our country elects a new president. Many people believe that when we cast our votes on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the way we cast our votes will determine who the next president of the United States will be. That belief, however, is not the case. The truth is that we are only voting for “presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College” (history.com). It is this group of people that actually elect to president. Each state is given a number of electors based on how many representatives they have in Congress, for a total number of 538 members of the Electoral College as of the time this paper was written. It is imperative that we maintain our Electoral College, so as to minimize
In 1787, the forebears conjured up the Constitution because they did not want to allow citizens to vote for their president undeviatingly . Afraid that society was not well equipped with information to select a president and that formidable common people would choose candidates from their own state, the forebearers considered that the president should be chosen through a selected group of electors, which they thought should be avowed as they contented. In this, political parties because very tenacious than they were before. These political group selected candidates and electors for the presidential and vice presidential positions. Electors were sworn to vote for their respected candidate. What is this Electoral College? The Electoral College
The electoral college is the process to elect a president by a votes from states. (American Government: Institutions & Policies.) Each state is given the amount of votes, to an elector, based off the number of representatives in Congress. The minimum amount of votes are three, while the maximum amount of votes are fifty-five.(The Founding Fathers; a Reform Caucus in Action) States are allowed to choose the electors in the method they see best. Most states, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, use a ‘winner takes all’ system.("The Electoral College: Enlightened Democracy.") In this process, the candidate who won the popular election is given all of the electors of that state. Unlike the popular vote, a candidate must gain the majority
The Electoral College was instituted by our founding fathers as an agreement for the Presidential voting procedure. Once the compromise was agreed upon the system was written into Article II, Section 1 under the 23rd Amendment of the United States Constitution on September 8, 1787. (Constitution.laws.com, 2018) Generally, it was formed for the buffer among the populations of the Presidential election and as a portion of the governmental structure that allocates additional power to the much smaller states, which assists with the voting processes by offering them support.
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,
The Electoral College is a system that was created by our Founders, men such as George Washington and James Madison. The system happens in two parts, the people vote, then the states get their turn.
The Fathers had established a solution between the debate of a election of the President by popular vote of citizens and the election of the President by a vote in Congress and; in the Constitution. The Electoral College includes of 538 electors. In order to win you need to have at least 270 votes. The people of each state vote for their candidate, and the electors vote on the candidate and give all the votes to the candidate who won the popular vote. In my opinion the Electoral College process is not an efficient way, and it needs to be revised. Technology has changed and every vote can be counted buy computers, since Founding Fathers tried to make it easier for them to count the votes, since they traveled by horse. Since candidates only focus on winning over states that have the most electors. The Electoral College doesn't go with the will of the people.
(U.S National Archives and Records Administration, 2017). To choose the Electors, each state produces a slate/group of individuals for each major political party that promised to vote for their party’s candidate. (Kimberling, 1992). This means that before the popular vote there are at least 1076 individuals waiting to become Electors 538 from each major party so 538 times 2. Afterward, a popular vote is held in which the people vote for a candidate’s slate of individuals which on ballots appears to the voter as the candidate themselves. The process becomes different per state at this step, all states except Maine and Nebraska use the system called Winner-Takes-All. Maine and Nebraska use a system called proportional representation where the electoral votes are award based on the majority in each congressional district. The Winner-Takes-All system states that when a candidate wins a simple majority (50.001%) of the vote in one state, they win all the electoral votes of that state. (Morone & Kersh). Once all the states votes are compiled together the electors cast their vote at a meeting of electors which occurs in each state. Nowadays the actual meeting of electors is mostly a formality as most know the outcome as soon as the votes are counted. However, there can be faithless electors which will be described in detail later. For a presidential candidate to win they must receive a majority of electors votes
What is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is a system that our Founding Fathers established in the Constitution in which representatives from the 50 states elect the President of the United States. The system begins with the people electing representatives to represent them, and then the representatives meet so they can vote for the next President and Vice President. The votes from each representative are then counted by Congress and are able to elect the candidate that has the most votes. According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (2013), “The Electoral College consists of 538 electors…270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.” Every state has an
Each state appoints a number of electors that equals the number of senators and representatives of their state. The popular vote determines how the electoral college of each state will vote. The candidate with highest amount of votes from the electoral colleges wins the election. This process of electing a president based on the majority of electoral votes began when the Constitution was written in 1776. Our forefathers designed this system because they felt it was the fairest way to govern.