The Abolishment Of The Electoral College

Watching this year’s election was shocking. Against all predictions, against every analysis, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States. But were those predictions really off? As the LA Times put it,” Hillary Clinton got roughly the same number of votes that President Obama received four years ago en route to his reelection, but she nonetheless lost the presidency to Donald Trump, who came in at least 2.8 million votes behind her.” This is, of course, because of the electoral college.

Though unlikely to be at the forefront of any 2016 presidential platforms, the Electoral College is a widely contested issue among partisans, many of who believe that a better method exists for selecting the President of the United States. This anti-Electoral College sentiment is also present among Americans nationwide, Republicans and Democrats alike. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 61% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats would vote to do away with the Electoral College. In today’s contentious political atmosphere, in which Republicans and Democrats are constantly at odds with one another, any level of agreement between the parties clearly indicates that a change needs to be made. Changes are already starting to occur at the state level,

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”.

If we somehow happened to be a capable vote, then we ought to have the capacity to really pick who might be president. The Electoral College removes that from us. The Electoral College is not by any stretch of the imagination reasonable for our rights and our opportunity. It, for the most part, takes away the ability to vote the president. The Electoral College was made in a period when votes were harder to gather and number.

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a leap year, five hundred and thirty eight electors travel to their state capitol buildings to decide who is the next president of the United States of America. They take an oath, and cast the official ballots for the presidential election. The problem is that this system is not fair. So, which way of electoral college reform is the best? In this essay, some options for electoral college reform are introduced, and the best one is chosen.

The Electoral College’s opponents believe that it is an unfair way of doing things because it doesn’t necessarily make every vote count, but they may not realize that it lets every state have a say. The candidate with an absolute majority in each state receives the elector’s votes, therefore it really boils down to a popular election just on a state by state basis, rather than a national one. “The proposals to abolish the Electoral College are proposals to abolish the Federal principle in presidential elections”(Best). The Electoral College has history on it’s side, the system they use really works, it is the best option we have, and it needs to be

That is, if one candidate loses the electoral college but wins the national vote, another election between the winner of the electoral college and the winner of the national vote should take place— a

Did you know that on election day you do not vote directly for president. Many people don’t like that they don’t ultimintly decide for president. They however don’t understant that it is there for a quite a few reasons. The first is that the founding fathers created the electoral college, second that it ensures that every state gets a say in who the president is, and number three is that it makes sure that the president is chosen by a majority vote and not a popular vote. When the founding fathers built this country they made the electoral college so that the presadent could be picked by an educated population.

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.

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

In a democracy, all citizens of a nation should be equal in every way. The Electoral College’s violation of political equality diminishes one of the most important staples of a democratic government. An even worse scenario can occur in the Electoral College in the case of a tie, in which “the election is thrown to the House of Representatives, where state delegations vote on the president” (Plumer 457). When this occurs, the general public’s votes are cast aside and

This week’s lesson gave me more clarity on the-the Electoral College. It was confusing at first to hear that the popular vote does not win an election. Bush lost the popular votes, but won the electoral vote in 2000, cleared by the Supreme Court (POLS201). I think it is better for the candidate to worry about the crucial electoral votes than the popular votes.

(Black, 2012) So, while it is clear that the Electoral College was set up to ensure all states have a voice, it now seems to have the ability to take away the voice of the people. It is necessary to look at our voting process and make the necessary changes needed to ensure the process of electing our President represents the voice of the people. By switching to a majority vote we ensure that the voice of all people are not only heard, but are represented equally, which is how it should be under the one-person, one-vote

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

Technically under this system we do not directly vote for our President/Vice President. Instead they select a group of people who have pledged to vote for their chosen candidate. These groups of people that