Should Electoral College Be Abolished

How would you react if you learned that the Presidential candidate you had cast your vote for, had actually received more of the popular vote than his competition, but was not elected the next President of the United States? Every four years in November over 90 million Americans vote for the presidential candidates, then in the middle of December the president and vice president of the United States are actually elected by the votes of only 538 citizens. Wouldn't you think there was an obvious flaw in the system? I would be willing to bet that the majority of you would, but in the case of the Electoral College apparently the majority doesn't count.

The Electoral College: a system that the U.S. has used over the years to choose representatives and is a compromise between election by a vote. The Electoral College should not be abolished for three reasons. These reasons are: The system helps candidates who struggle with winning the Popular Vote; with Electoral Votes, it gives the little states enough power and votes, and if we abolish The Electoral College, we weaken the Political Two-Party-System. And if not weakened, then destroyed. These reasons will show that the Electoral College should not be abolished, and should be kept.

Some people may believe that having the electoral college takes away the rights and needs of the states, but it does the complete opposite; it allows the president to meet the state’s needs and give them the power that is promised “The Electoral College makes sure that the states count in the presidential elections. As such, it is an important part of our federalist system...”(Document C). Document C shows us that the states are represented and have been represented for centuries due the to system in which certain powers are given to the states in order to keep the federal government in check. Consequently our states rely on the Electoral College to

Most states are always republican or democratic in the way they vote. So the amount of votes is already in favor of one candidate or another before voting actually arrives.(Document 7). Since the candidates are always insured a certain number of votes, the candidates only have to worry about “swing states” or states that change their decisions every election. Since the non-swing states never decide in favor of one candidate or the other by themselves the power to elect a new president resides with whom the citizens of swing states vote for. Without an electoral college, each citizen's vote would be worth more and everyone could help determine a new president instead of the select few who are living in “swing states.” All of these reasons help to make it clear that the electoral college is a corrupt

The voting process in America appears straightforward, but it is a very complex, complicated system. The Electoral College is America’s current voting system. The Electoral College still serves its intended purpose, but with increasing political activity among Americans it has caused a need to reform this process. Research suggests that the Electoral College system should be amended because it poorly illustrates democracy, is outdated and the majority of Americans are in favor of abolishing the system.

The popular vote and electoral vote are two different things. Popular vote, shows how many people in the state wants the candidate. For example, The results from the Election of 1824 shows that the popular vote for each candidate differs by a large amount. The smallest popular vote candidate was William Crawford with 11.2% and his electoral vote was 41 then take a look at candidate Henry Clay with a popular vote of 13% and his electoral vote was 37. (Doc 3)This shows that the Electoral vote trumps the popular vote and it really should be the opposite. The more people that vote the more say you should have to who is the

“The Electoral College system further distorts the one-person, one-vote principle of democracy because electoral votes are not distributed according to population. Every state gets one electoral vote for each member of its delegation to the House of Representatives and each state also gets two “bonus” electors representing its two senators” (10 reasons why the Electoral College is a problem).Whether they have a high echelon or low one in this country they should be able to have their votes matter. The popular vote allows parties to not have to campaign in lesser known states. “It distorts the presidential campaign, as alluded to yesterday, by incentivizing the parties to write off the more than 40 states (plus the District of Columbia) that they know they either can’t win or can’t lose. Among the states that, in recent history, don’t get campaign visits or TV ads” (10 reasons why the Electoral College is a problem).

When it comes to presidential elections, presidents are voted within two methods: the Electoral College and the popular votes. The Electoral College, first found in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention (Yetter), is a body of officials that who formally elect presidents every four years. It was established to ensure the entire nation has an equal saying of choosing the president (Moody). The popular votes, however, are the many citizens that choose their votes. The winner of the election should be determined by the popular votes since there are a lot more people that have voted, but that is not the case.

The Electoral College system was initially set up to help create a more efficient way of electing government officials. In the 1700’s the media coverage was not as broad as it is today, so many people would be without knowledge of the candidates or even what is going on in that election. With the vast coverage of media all around the country, people are more informed and better educated than ever before. This coverage of media makes the sole purpose of the Electoral College irrelevant and it should be taken out of our system today.

The United States, well known for its democracy, holds elections every four years to elect its President. Every American citizen over the age of 18 has a right to cast a vote in the presidential election. The voting process, although it seems easy and straightforward, can be very complicated. In the 2000 election, Al Gore captured the majority of votes, but George Bush won. The reason for this strange outcome and why Al Gore lost was because of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is voting system where different states are given a certain amount of votes in the election, and which ever candidate wins a state, is given that state’s votes. The Electoral College is out of date, and should be replaced by the Popular Vote system,

During this last election, there has been a lot of controversy between the electoral college and the popular vote. Some young voters felt like their votes didn’t count because Hillary won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes. There has been protest all around the country at college campuses and government buildings fighting for the electoral college to be questioned as a viable presidential selection process. They protest that Hillary should have been elected President of the United States of America based on the popular voting method. Hillary won the popular

One big thing about the United States is how much it is for its people. A saying that is often heard within the United States is “for the people”. The Electoral College, however, ignores the will of the people. There are approximately 200 million registered voters in the United States, but only 538 people decide who will be the next president (Goldmacher, Shafer, Jacobs, Latimer, & Weise, 2016). The ratio of that is approximately 269:100,000,000, which is not very good. If the Unites States did not ignore the will of the people, then the President would get elected by a popular vote. There are multiple cases where a Presidential candidate won the popular vote but was not elected president. The most recent case was the last Presidential election. Hillary Clinton received about 1 million more votes than Donald Trump in the popular vote, but Donald Trump received more electoral votes and was elected President. This has happened in the elections of John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden, Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland, and George W. Bush over Al Gore. When this situation occurs, voters sometimes get angry because they believe that who they voted for should win if they receive the most popular votes. There is also the possibility of a tie vote between the candidates, and the rules of the Electoral College system for dealing with such a problem are bizarre and creates a scenario where no one

In recorded history there have been five instances where the United States has elected a President that did not achieve the office by popular vote, rather these politicians were elected by the system that our founding fathers enacted known as the Electoral College. This system was made to protect the people, and never to confront the very democracy that makes America the great country we all know and love. The Electoral College in recent years, has not lived up to the expectations that the Founding Fathers once wrote in the constitution. Because of the problems that have arisen, many believe that abrogating the Electoral College will not only benefit the American citizens, but as well as the government as a whole.

The Electoral College disenfranchises numerous voters annually, and its seemingly decreasing relevance is highly debated today. While the United States Constitution outlines the Electoral College, many claim it reduces the voter’s power. On this issue I have summarized, compared, and evaluated six sources to reach my own verdict and assess if the Electoral College should be abolished for a national popular vote.

The Electoral College system is a serious problem with the United States government. The Electoral College is a system for election in which each state selects electors equal in number to that of its representation in the House and Senate. (O'Connor and Sabato, 2000) This method took the election of the president and vice-president out of the people and Congress's hands, and placed it in that of the selected electors. (O'Connor and Sabato, 2000) Forty-eight of the fifty states use the "winner-take-all" method. (Lavelle et al., 2000) That means that whichever candidate wins the states popular vote receives all of that state's electoral votes. (Lavelle et al., 2000) The system was the result of a compromise