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Essay on electoral college
Essay on electoral college
Electoral college essay
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The electoral college started in the year 1804. This mechanism is a group of representatives in the United States who cast votes for the election of a leader or co leader of America. In recent years, there has been a lot of debate amongst citizens of this country on whether or not the process of electing the president is fair. To most, they can agree that something isn't right with the system for individuals in America to vote. There is too much confusion going on and not to point out the total unfairness that some don’t realize. The U.S. presidential election is biased due to the reasoning that it is out dated for its time, senators are valid to hijack the election, and the electoral college gives the Americans a right to vote for the president, …show more content…
Politico continues on to state, "Making this runaround of the Constitution will result in dire consequences for our nation’s ability to choose its top leader fairly and effectively." (Gregg, Gary) This couldn’t be true in any way because how is choosing the leader of the united states even close to fair now than it would be without it? Voting through the popular vote would give citizens a reason and desire to vote because it would be far more trustworthy than what the opposing viewer is stating. The reason for many individuals to not vote is due to the system technically choosing who wins rather than the people themselves. The most effective way for any constitution to be fair is to go by what is voted for the most by the people in the country rather than the selected ones to take the vote which is not helping the smaller states much anymore. This process has not been fair for a good amount of time since the people don’t get what they voted for. For example, IVN points out, "it transforms our democracy into an oligarchy at the highest levels." (Lewis, Bob) Giving the senators the power to vote for who is actually is going to win goes against everything that America has stated about this country being a democracy which means we the people would get a say rather than a small group of people but that isn't what is going on. The statesmen are getting the greater voice; it needs to be recognized before it is too late, and everything goes downhill in this country. The best resolution for this case would only be to get rid of the electoral system because of how unjust this process is and how it is affecting the citizens in American, yet they don’t even know
Originating in 1787, the Electoral College was created as the official body within American politics that elects the president and vice president. The decision of who will win is based off the vote totals in each state, and “the founding fathers established it in the constitution as a compromise between election of the president by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.” (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, “What is the Electoral College?”). During this time, the job of the Electoral College was to make peace between differing states and federal interest groups, provide popular participation in elections, give a vote to less populated states, and keep the president’s powers separate from Congress.
Electoral College is Wrong The Electoral College is the name given to a group of electors who are nominated by political activists and party members within the states. The electoral college really isn't necessary and should be abolished. There are numerous reasons why this is so important. With the Electoral College in effect, third parties don't have a chance to become the president, which isn't fair.
The Electoral College has been the favored method by the United States to elect the president for many years. When the College was first created in 1787 it was seen as an efficient and reliable way to vote the president into office. It has been more than 2 centuries since this method of electing was chosen and many things have changed in U.S. society. The Electoral College is failing to keep up with these advancements in society and a new method must be chosen soon.
The Electoral College system should be scrapped and be replaced with popular vote because it is unfair. By abolishing the Electoral College and replacing it with popular vote, it would represent citizens equally, it would allow citizens to elect their president just as they elect their governors and senators, and it would motivate and encourage citizens to participate in voting.
The Electoral College is an outdated and unrealistic arrangement that caters to eighteenth century federalist America in a way that is detrimental to modern democracy. The electoral college gives too much power to the government, overlooks equal representation, and creates loopholes that do not serve to help America thrive.
Due to the discrepancy between the winner of the popular vote and the winner of the electoral college in the most recent election, there has been a lot of talk about eliminating the electoral college and moving to a direct popular vote. While many people argue for this shift, usually with little knowledge of what a popular vote election would look like, there are also many citizens who are opposed to the idea. In our polarized political climate, this fact is not surprising. Those who support the electoral college defend it by claiming that it is not only constitutional, but it also represents the whole county, and makes for a more certain, legitimate election process.
The Electoral College was created by the framers at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. They believe that it wasn’t a good idea for the people to elect the president directly because they did not trust that voters would have enough information to make a good choice. The Electoral College basically chooses who the next president will be since it takes away our freedom to vote. The Electoral College should be abolished because it’s undemocratic, the small states are overrepresented, and it hurts third parties. The United States of America is a democratic country that is characterized by the equality of rights and privileges.
In fact, the Constitution contains provisions for direct and indirect election of the different parts of the legislature and the executive, based on overlapping but distinct electorates (Muller 1251). In addition, many people believe that, the Electoral College process of electing the president necessitates replacement with a direct popular vote to honor our democratic form of government in the United States. Moreover, in a democratic form of government, the authority rests with the people rather than in one or a few as in a totalitarian or authoritarian form of government. People believe a direct election supports the 14th Amendment principle of “one person, one vote” (Wagner 577). Therefore, the winner-take-all system inaccurately represents the will of the American citizens since not all candidates garner any electoral votes. On the other hand, a popular vote for the president could lead to many runoffs if neither candidate reaches a majority, creating a bigger opportunity for voter fraud and manipulation of the vote, which would not truly represent the will of the people, states, or country. The Electoral College sometimes fails to represent the national popular vote because states use the winner-take-all approach and not some proportional method for the representation of its voters. However, the Founding Fathers were not too keen on
This process of electing a president is unjust and is not based off of the people’s views. In Document D the chart provided illustrates how some of the electoral votes favor some states over others; for example the twelve states listed and the district of Columbia seem to have a bigger say in the presidential election process than the citizens of Illinois. This itself is unfair because Illinois deserves to have an accurate representation of their votes, the same as other states do. This shows that the Electoral College undercuts the principle of one person, one vote, and therefore violates political equality. “It is not a neutral counting device... it favors some citizens over others, depending solely upon the state in which voters cast their votes for president” (Document D). Political equality means all citizens are equal and it also allows citizens to partake in state affairs, including the right to vote and the right to challenge elections. However the Electoral College violates the principle of this for the fact that it weighs some citizens’ votes more heavily than others (video). Generally it makes no sense for the people to vote if they’re not even counted, and either way it violates their rights.
The Electoral College was a compromise between those at the Constitutional Convention who wanted the US president elected by popular vote and those who wanted congress to select the president. They believed that having it where each state would get a certain number of votes based on population would keep a manipulative and charming person out of office. They thought it would prevent bribery and corruption along with secret dealings. I don’t think that this is the case and it one of the reason I feel that the Electoral College should be abolished.
The Founders built certain protections for individual rights into this country's founding documents. The United States Constitution was one such document. In particular, such protections guard Americans who hold minority viewpoints from those who side with the majority. For example, the First Amendment protects the right of free speech to ensure that people who hold unpopular views have just as much freedom to express those views as do people who tend to agree with the majority. The United States Constitution, therefore, was intended to protect the individual rights of Americans from a tyrannical government and majority. However, today, the Electoral College does not represent the vibrant democracy into which the United States has grown.
The Electoral College is not actually a place; it is how we elect our President per the Constitution. The Founders created this system as a compromise between choosing a President by popular vote or a vote by Congress (“U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College?). Although this system has been in place since the beginning of our country, there are both good and bad things about it. To understand whether this system should be kept or abolished, it is important to see how it works.
The Electoral College is a system where the President is directly elected. This process has been used in many past elections as well as the current 2016 election. This process also helps narrow down the large numbers that were made by the popular votes, into a smaller number that is easier to work with for electing the President. Some states use a system called “winner-takes-all”, which is another system that is connected with the Electoral College. This allows a candidate with the most electoral votes, to get the rest of the votes that the state provides. This has made it very unfair to many people, because the Electoral College has the most advantage for candidates. The Electoral College is a very unfair system that causes any candidate to win easily if he or she has the highest votes, and makes the number of voters
However, history has shown that electors have, more often than not, simply voted for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state. The electors themselves are chosen by political parties, who expect them to vote with along party lines. Some states even have laws punishing electors if they don’t vote for the winner of the state they represent. As shown in Document G, the winners of the Electoral College in 1876, 1888, and 2000, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush, all went on to become president after the electors voted accordingly with their state results. The present form of the Electoral College is a complete departure from the Founding Fathers’
Providing that the president be chosen indirectly through the "electoral college" rather than directly by the voters in November was one of the founders' limits against "popular passion." In the beginning, the electors had very real powers to work their will. Now, their sole function is to