Electoral College Pros And Cons

The United States' President and Vice President are chosen through the Electoral College, an indirect voting system. As a middle ground between electing the president through a popular vote and having Congress choose the candidate, it was established by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution. According to this method, a set number of electors is allotted to each state based on its population, and these electors vote for the president on behalf of the residents of their state. For more than 200 years, the United States has chosen its president using the Electoral College system, which has proven to be a trustworthy and accurate method.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. The number of electors is different for every state and is based on the number of Congress members within the state. The minimum number of electoral votes a state receives is three; one for each member in the House of Representatives and two for every member in the Senate. There are eight states with the minimum electoral votes, which are Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. California has the largest representation of electoral votes at fifty-five.

The electoral college is, “a body of people representing the states of the US, formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president” (Kimberling). Come election time, the states that make up the United States are worth a certain number of votes. That number depends on the population of the state. For example, California has 55 electoral votes, the most, because it is the most populous, and the District of Columbia is one of the smallest and has 3 electoral votes. In

I must preface this discussion with the fact that I am anything but, pro Electoral College. Nonetheless, the Electoral College is a method of voting within our democracy, which each state is allocated a certain amount of “electors” who are sworn to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their respective state. However, there are two exceptions to this rule, the states of Nebraska and Maine, which bifurcate their respective electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote. The quantity of electoral votes in any given state is grounded in the state’s congressional representation. Respectively, each state is afforded two votes for every Senator with an added vote for every member of the House of Representatives, which is in-turn grounded in volume of the state population.

First of all, with the Electoral College system in play, small states are highly over-represented. “No matter how big or how small, each and every state in the US is allocated at a minimum, three electoral votes; two senators and one representative or more depending on the population of that particular state.” (Document A) In order to make this possible, bigger states must give away some of their electoral votes to the smaller states, making smaller states highly represented and bigger states not so highly represented. For further example, here is an excerpt taken from “The Indefensible Electoral College” written by Bradford Plumer, “Because each state casts only one

Even if say Romney was popular in the south, that would not mean anything in a popular vote. If someone lived in the south and voted for a president their vote would count for one of the total votes that candidate would receive, no matter of their origin. If Romney ran in an election only counting the popular vote he would already have the votes of the south, therefore not have any incentive to campaign there. However, what is the difference between that and the current campaign. If Romney say had a solid grip in Ohio why would he have a reason to ever step foot in Ohio if he knew he would already had their

When an individual decides to vote for the up coming election for the president of the United States of America they are in fact not voting for a candidate but for an elector instead that will cast your vote in your place instead. Although some might believe that they voted for the next president, 538 electors will make the vote. The method of selecting an elector to vote for the president instead of individuals choosing the president through their own vote is a system known as the “The Electoral College”. According to “We the People: An Introduction to American Politics” an electoral college is defined as “ the electors from each state who meet after the popular elections to cast ballots for president and vice president”.

Even though the Electoral College has been here since the beginning of the establishment of the U.S I believe it should be abolished. As a U.S citizen does your vote matter to who is elected? Every four years the United States has a presidential election. Your vote for the presidential nominee is considered to fall into the category of a popular vote.

If the Electoral College were to be not used anymore, all the elections would then be decided by court. That would simply be chaotic and

Consisting of 538 electors, a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect a President (NARA). Representation in the college is directly proportionate to the number of Congressional members your state has, one for each Senator and Representative. When a citizen casts

Many believe that they are voting directly towards a President or Vice President on election day (“Electoral College”). Elector names are not on ballots therefore making the citizen believe it is a straight vote unless informed about the system (“Electoral College”). Overall the Electoral College is an important aspect when it comes to the presidential elections. Even if the majority of votes are in favor of a candidate throughout the country, the candidate might not secure the presidency if he or she do not win with the necessary amount of electoral votes.

The Electoral College is a group of people whose vote represents the state of the United States; they formally vote during the presidential election in accordance with the vote cast by the public to elect the next President of the United States. With the definition provided and the role the electoral college plays in the presidential election, it does not correlate with the rule of democracy. Democracy allows the public to directly vote for an elected official to represent them in the government and carry out the will of the people. But with the Electoral College, the voters are voting for the presidential electors and not the candidate they want to become their next President.

All through the history of the United States of America, many people have discussed the abolishment of the Electoral College. For many reasons, some believe it is what makes our country have the type of government we have, some believe that it's what limits the power of the government, and many people such as Mitch McConnell believes it is what gives us our freedom and prosperity. While these are valid arguments there is a multitude of reasons to why the electoral college should be abolished. Such as there is only a need for twelve states in order to become the president, popular vote of the people for president can still lose, and the Swing states are given too much power and attention compared to that of the other states. This is why I believe in the abolishment of the Electoral College.

This makes the presidential candidates campaign across all of the United States and forces development across the country. Thus limiting the dangers of region problems that is extremely common in all larger country like china and even afflicted great empires like the Romans. Another large selling point to keeping the electoral college is without it, it effectively destroys one of the most important pillars to the founding fathers, federalism. Federalism is the political idea that allows for a central government, in our case the national government, and regional government, the states, to coexist and contain similar levels of power. The states will no longer need congressional delegates because the interests of the states will be ignored in favor of appealing directly towards the

The Electoral College system assures balanced power between the states, puts the independent parties under control, grants balanced voting, and supports the major political parties. The Electoral College has proven itself to be very sufficient in determining the president and the vice president of the United States. Since this system has been successful since our Founding Fathers created it, there should be no reason as to why we should get rid of the Electoral