The Electoral College: How It Has Shaped the Modern Presidential Election Since 1968

1174 Words3 Pages

Every four years that a Presidential election comes to pass the Electoral College is responsible for the formal election of both the President and Vice President of the United States. As an example of an indirect election, where people in each state at large vote in order to decide which individuals will be delegated the responsibility of casting votes for President and Vice President in accordance with the popular vote of the state which has entrusted them to provide such representation, the Electoral College works to ensure that smaller states are not denied the right to have the equal power of influence in our national election for President (Neale, 2004). The Electoral College itself has been in existence since it was introduced within the framework of various proposals introduced at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 (Neale, 2004). The Mcgovern-Fraser Commission in 1969, which was known formally as the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, played a crucial role in amending the practices of political parties in their work within the Electoral framework, in particular changing the way in which states were allowed to select delegates to national conventions (Stricherz, 2003). This would result in candidates having to develop broader campaigns that would need to appeal to voters across any state in which they desired that states delegation officially support their candidacy.

The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors which represents the voting membership of both houses of congress (535) and 3 additional electors to represent Washington D.C (Neale, 2004) . Each state is allocated electoral votes according to their representation of members in both houses of congress, giving electoral college ...

... middle of paper ...

...rough the decades to overturn the Electoral College to no avail as the congress has consistently failed to get enough support for a constitutional amendment to end the Electoral College process. The Electoral College is here to stay and its impact on presidential elections will continue to effect how candidates plan their campaigns for the foreseeable future.

Works Cited

Neale, Thomas H., CRS Web. CRS Report For Congress. The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections. 28 September, 2004. http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/36762.pdf

Stricherz, Mark. "Primary Colors: How a little-known task force helped create Red State/Blue State America." http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/11/23/primary_colors/ 23 Nov. 2003.

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/

Open Document