Purpose Of The Electoral College

The United States has benefited from the Electoral College for hundreds of years. This essay will discuss the presidential voting process and the merits of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a more effective method of choosing the president than the general election. This is due to the fact that it greatly improves efficiency and ensures the integrity of the election. There would be a huge number of candidates to pick from if the Electoral College did not exist and we had a public vote instead.

The year of 1876 was and will probably be forever known as the most disputed election in the American history of elections. There was a lot of violence, discrimination and unjust results during the election of 1876-1877. The electoral commission was developed due to circumstances the election caused. Samuel J. Tilden had outpolled Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote, but due to the twenty uncounted electoral votes, there was a compromise and Hayes was elected President. The results of the election could and would have been different if the popular votes were considered in the decision of the presidency in the year of 1876.

  The Electoral College and the Pros and Cons of Electoral Votes and Popular Votes When planning on the election process of the USA during the Constitutional Convention, the politicians of the time wanted to make it so that citizens chose their president indirectly. This was the initial birth of the Electoral College, which is composed of state electors. These state electors make their vote based on their state’s popular vote. The parties

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.

Advocates of the Electoral College may think that if a popular vote was instated, candidates would just focus on the larger populated areas; however, don’t they

Thus, the Electoral College ensures that all parts of the country are involved in the election process. This will also ensure that groups in rural areas and small towns such as Iowa farmers and Ohio factory workers will have their voice heard. Rather than giving more power to the national government, the Electoral College directs more powers to the states. The states are given the power to choose their delegates for the Electoral College which allows them to be more involved in the presidential elections. Thus, this maintains the representative form of

Since the inception of our constitution in 1787, there has only been 4 elections where the Electoral College has allowed the future president-elect candidate to win the election, despite losing the popular vote. 4/57 elections is probably something that political scientists don’t lose sleep over, but it is a topic that is worth mentioning and discussing, especially after the controversial presidential election in 2000. From my point of view, I believe that the method we use in selecting our presidents is flawed and ineffective for a couple of reasons. First, the Electoral College has far fewer votes than the American people, yet their vote has a lot more meaning. With 538 delegates representing the Electoral College, it is unfair and inequitable to the millions of people who devote their time and energy to stand in long

The electoral college also helps the small states have an opinion that actually is heard in the presidential election. In class, it was discussed that Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota together, though their combined population is less than that of Oklahoma, each of those states has three electoral votes, whereas Oklahoma just has seven votes. Going by electoral votes, a candidate would have a better chance at winning the election if they won over Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota versus Oklahoma. With the electoral college, a candidate could win over all thirty-nine small states and win the entire election. Though the candidate could be supported by less than a quarter of the population,

Then, they build campaign platforms with a national focus, which means that the winner will serve all of the country’s needs. If the election only depended on the popular vote, candidates could limit campaigning to heavily populated areas or specific regions. Tina Mullaly, a South Dakota Representative, stated, “the Electoral College protects small state and minority interests and that a national popular vote would be like two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.” (Tina Mullaly) Without the electoral college, some states like Iowa and Ohio with small farmers or factory workers they would be ignored for having favor of pandering to metropolitan areas with a higher population density.

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

The Electoral College is the process to which the United States elects the President, and the Vice President. The founders of the Constitution came up with this process. This was done to give additional power to the small states, and it was done to satisfy them. It works by the citizens of the United States electing representatives called electors. Each state is given the same amount of electors, as they are members of congress.

According to Document C, it protects the rights of states with smaller populations. Many states, like Montana and Wyoming, would never have had enough representation to have any power, but with the Electoral College, they have a say in the election of the president. This follows the same idea as the reason to divide Congress into two houses. The Electoral College also prevents unqualified people from becoming president. As described by Document E, using the winner-take-all method doesn’t give any votes to candidates who are not given the majority of votes, the ones most likely to be candidates for splinter parties.

The Electoral College is a longstanding organization in place in the United States of America that was originally established by the Founding Fathers in create equality in presidential elections has become a topic of harsh criticism and controversy over the years. The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers of the United States at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in order ensure there was representation of the people while keeping the best interests of the nation in mind (“What is the Electoral College?”). At the time of the writing of the Constitution, there were two main ideas on how to elect a president. The first was that there should be a simple vote of all eligible people and who ever gets the most votes becomes

If the people were to elect the president directly, certain situations/problems wouldn’t be as analyzed like the Electoral College analyzes it. (McGraw Hill pg.385) If we were to get rid of the electoral college the states with a higher population would dominate the elections, therefore, leaving the small rural states unnoticed or with no voice. That would be very unfair towards rural areas, the present system gives the state’s power more strength and secures our federal system’s strength. (McGraw Hill pg.385)

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