Electoral College Dbq Analysis

The land of the free and the home of the brave is not as free or brave as one might think. The voting that takes place during the presidential election is not an accurate representation of what the free world wants; and if the citizens of this nation do not take a stand against this injustice then the United States is not the home of the brave either. The nationalism behind the Electoral College is vacant. Over the course of the two hundred years that this country was born the American citizens would stop at nothing to receive the rights that were finally granted to them, one of which includes popular sovereignty where the majority rules and allows all citizens to have a say in the government. The American citizens need to preserve the rights

that their past generations have fought tirelessly for. These rights have been taken for granted ever since 1787 when the Electoral College was enacted. The pride that was once encapsulated in the american voting system is no longer prevalent in the nation and the only way to bring back the true right of popular sovereignty is to abolish the Electoral College.
The Electoral college is a process for electing the president of the United States in which the founding fathers had established, one of which was Alexander Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton was a federalist, meaning he advocated the ideology of strong national power as opposed to more individual state power. Hamilton stated “...that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station…” (Doc. 1) meaning he wanted only the elites to vote because they were the only ones “capable of analyzing” what was best for the country. Although this was a spectacular processes in the past when most citizens were not properly educated and could not decipher what had to be done for themselves let alone for the entire country. However, in today's society the American citizens are educated with the basics of politics and they are aware what is best for them. Considering that this county was founded on individuality, the country vote needs to be by the individual needs of each citizen. To get a proper representation of what the citizen needs the electoral college must be abolished. This system is only cheating the american people by not

allowing the people to govern the government. The sole responsibility of the United States government is to protect each right bestowed upon each citizen, however, with the Electoral College the government is taking away one of the very same rights they are supposed to be protecting. Not allowing the American people to cast votes directly has caused problems dating back to 1824. The Electoral College system elects the president based on the popular vote meaning a candidate must receive a vote of at least 51%. As shown in the chart, Results from the Election of 1824, (Doc. 3), when Andrew Jackson ran for president against John Quincy Adams, Jackson received the majority of the popular vote of 41.3% and Adams only received 30.9% of the popular vote. Because candidate did not reach the true majority vote of 51%, the election fell into the hands of the House of Representatives where John Quincy Adams was then elected as the president to the United states. This corrupt system is neglecting the people's choice ever since 1824 and this dreadful system must be retracted for the American voice to be heard.
Moreover, the Electoral College grants each state a different number of votes. As shown in 2016 Presidential Election Electoral Vote Map & Project (Doc. 7), at a first glance one can easily tell the difference of the amount of electoral votes each state receives. More importantly the fact that the party that receives the highest number of those electoral Votes gets all of the electoral votes of that state. For an example, California has a total of 55 electoral votes and they are likely to vote Democrat. However, not every person in California is a democrat. The Electoral College is again silencing many members of the country because the majority of votes that are not in favor of the minority ideals of the people who live in that state. The minority votes matter just as much as the majority vote for those votes were casted by American citizens as well. With the extreme number of electoral votes that California has the republican party would have to solidify the three major tossup states that are Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia to have only 2 more electoral votes than California. Only 2, meaning that if the Democrats were to have the majority electoral votes in Wisconsin (6 electoral votes) they would receive all 10 of Wisconsin's electoral votes and the democrats would be again up by 8 electoral votes. The electoral college is meant to be a fair and accurate representation of the od the people's choice. However, it normally favors democratic political party because the states in which are likely to vote democrat have more electoral votes than those of republican. Some people might be intimidated by this system and the predicting of the outcome which can discourage voters from voting making them feel that if they do not live in the toss up states then there is no purpose of voting because those states are predicted to vote for their opposing party. Not only is the electoral college unfair to the American people, it is also detrimental to the American community.
It is possible for this system to cause low voter turnout. The voters would feel as though their vote does not matter because it will not change the outcome of the electoral vote. This ideal is prevalent in Article 2, Section 1 of the United States Constitution (Doc. 2) where the population per electoral vote changes per state. The population of Wyoming consist of 563,626 people however the population per electoral vote consists of 187,875 meaning they receive only 3 electoral votes. However, in California with a population of 37,253,956 the population per electoral vote is 677,345 therefore they receive 55 electoral votes. This is again a fault in the the Electoral College. For this system to be truly fair the number per electoral vote needs to be an equal number throughout all states because then the minority citizen ideals will also be heard as opposed to them being silenced by the majority voters ideals. If every citizen in California were to have as much sway as the citizens of Wyoming over their electoral votes than california should receive 198 electoral votes based on their population of 37,253,956. But, because the Electoral College is a ‘win and take all’ type system this would give the state of California too much power when electing the next leader of the free world. Any of the many ways one could attempt to alter Electoral College there will always be citizens feeling cheated out of their vote because there is no way for the turn out of the election to be equally fair to all citizens under the tyrannical umbrella that is the Electoral College. This is only one of the reasons why the electoral college should be completely abolished and the country should run on true popular sovereignty.
Voting is one of the many things that make America the great country that it is.

Voting for one's future leader is an immense responsibility and a strong government move that was ahead of its time when first established. As Abraham Lincoln once said “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” The Electoral College must be abolished in order for every citizen's ballot to be stronger than the bullet. Democracy will be a virtue that this country will always be privileged enough endure for it is the foundation of America. The Electoral College however is only impeding the the democratic nationalism. The Electoral College does not prove to be an accurate representation of the American people, therefore even the republic that is in place is taking away one of the basic principles that was bestowed upon America. Popular sovereignty must be effective on a national level as opposed to the state level. Although the popular vote of the Electoral College does take popular votes it does not take it on the national level. That is the problem of this system and because there is no impeccable way of mending this wretched system, it has to be abolished for the sake of all american

citizens.