Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College

Did you know that in two out of the last five U.S. presidential elections, the candidate who won the popular vote did not win the presidency? Now, to explore the question, Should We Abolish the Electoral College? The very system that defies the will of the majority. This question is often being thought about as the Electoral College has what some may argue advantages and perks, but it does have its downsides and what some may argue flaws. We will be exploring on why the current Electoral College should be left alone, as it does not allow the majority to always get their way, it ensures that all parts of a country is involved in the election and that candidates will serve the entire country, and lastly, the Electoral College creates a compromise between popular vote and congressional choice.

In the last twenty years, we have had two times when the system has given a winner that wasn’t supported by the majority of voters, yet we didn’t have any in all of the 20th century. This could mean that it is getting more and more likely that the electoral college will have someone that the majority of voters didn’t vote for. All of this contributes to the idea that one vote is worthless, which is why the electoral college is antithetical to a democracy. Congressmen aren’t elected through a slate of people voted by citizens to vote for citizens, so why is the president? If the government is truly to be by the people, why can this happen?

According to the National Archives, the Electoral College is, “...a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.'' The Electoral College was created in the late 1700’s, and was used as a buffer between the voting population and the official selection of the president. For the founding fathers, this solved a wide array of problems: the possible risk of leaving the power of choosing who the leader of the country to ill -informed voters, unequal representation and distribution of votes between the North and South of the U.S., and supported the idea of separation between powers in the government. In this country, it has been believed that the government has been built off of popular sovereignty, the theory that the government is created by and is subject to the will of its citizens. But how is this concept valid when the people of the United States don’t directly vote and decide who will govern them?

The Electoral College allows the United States to vote for the President and Vice President. Instead of being voted directly by the people, each state selects electors to vote for the President (Lau). The system has been in place since the country's founding and has been the subject of much debate over the years. While some

211). If the issue of reforming or abolishing the electoral college is one that opposes the United States Constitution, then we have to look at how many times that has been amended. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times over the course of history for better or for worse. This amendment of the electoral college could play a vital role in the future of American democracy. If the electoral college was abolished and direct popular vote was put into place it would eliminate the influence of “unconstitutional” voting results.

The original system for U.S. elections was changed by the 12th Amendment, to the highly controversial method which uses “a number of electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the congress” (5). This electoral college, at the suggestion of their state’s vote count, then casts their votes on behalf of their citizens. In the 2016 election, we witnessed what some would consider a failure of the electoral college, where the popular vote was won by Hillary Clinton, while the electoral college elected Donald Trump. This was a situation that the forefathers did not intend when they created this system in order to prevent a monarchy in America, but it does pose a question on whether we should reconsider our election process. Article III establishes the judicial branch and its’ power, which extends to “all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this constitution, the Laws of the United States” (7).

Whether or not the electoral college should remain in the voting process is an often debated topic. It’s debated that the popular vote should determine who the president is and I believe that this is the fairest thing to do. If the electoral college is replaced by just going by the popular vote, it will more accurately represents American citizen’s verdict on who the next president will be. Presently, in most states, the candidate to get the most votes gets all of the electoral votes that the state can give.

Does your vote really matter? In our complicated election, will your vote matter ever really matter. The Electoral College should be abolished, for its lack of representation of America’s votes. In our most recent election, the electoral college played a huge part in deciding who would be the leader of our country. Though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, due to the electoral college, what the majority of the people in our country did not matter and Donald Trump won through electoral votes.

Electoral College: For the Lose One view to consider that when voting for a president through the electoral college , voters are confused about the election process no more than they are unprepared of the consequences they ace of their votes not being counted. Voting by popular vote when electing a president is the best choice contrary to the electoral college; in favor of defying the people. Americans vote in order to elect a president of their preference to run our country. Voting by popular vote surpasses the whole electoral process by giving the people not just what they want, but what Americans need. Direct election of presidents remains solid as opposed to the “faithless” electoral college.

Democracy within our country has been questioned and tested through our voting system. In America, our system for electing our president has remained under a process that aims to benefit our nation. By doing this, America uses the Electoral College, in which may cause disputes about the process of electing our president. Overall, there are advantages and disadvantages within the concept of winner-take all system, representing our nation as a whole, and equality of our votes. The Electoral College can be reformed to establish a more democratic voting system in order to allow for the voices of American citizens to be heard.

The decision to abolish the electoral college is not a new one. Ever since the introduction of the Constitution, with the electoral college being introduced in the second article and reaffirmed in the Twelfth Amendment, over seven hundred propositions have been made to modify or abolish the electoral college. Even though these attempts have all failed, it is important to note that there are major flaws in this system, and the decision to abolish, or discontinue, this way of life should be reevaluated. The first and largest flaw of this presidential college is its potential for corruption and misrepresentation.

The United States Electoral College is an American system designed by the founding fathers to conduct elections. However, it has become subject to controversy in the 2016 Presidential election. The unique aspect of the Electoral College is how electors are awarded to presidential candidates using a state-by-state method of determining the number of electors. While the Electoral College is fundamental to the founders of America to protect the nation, its fatal flaws are too damaging to the people of the United States. In my opinion, the Electoral College needs to be reexamined in order to establish a new way of electing Presidents and Vice Presidents.

The Electoral College is a system established by the United States Constitution to elect our country's President and Vice President. Although often viewed as one national election, it is a series of state elections. As originally designed, each state would choose a slate of electors that would then select the President and Vice President. This means that rather than voting directly for the President, people vote for certain electors who choose the President. This process has largely been sidelined and people today vote for a presidential candidate of a certain party rather than an elector.

In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it

Several years after the United States came to be, the Constitutional Convention met to determine how the new nation should govern itself. The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. The delegates believed that the president’s power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nation’s principle of representative democracy, while others