The Electoral College in the United States is not a place but a process. It was a process our founding fathers established in the Constitution. It is a complicated voting system that most citizens today do not understand. The Electoral College has been in place for well over two hundred years and is unfortunately showing its age. Most people believe that when they vote in a general election for the President, they truly believe they are voting for the president. This has shown to be the case many times in the past elections, but it has happened that the candidate who won the popular vote was not elected President by the Electoral College. The Process spelled out in the Constitution as written by our founding fathers known as the Electoral College needs to be replaced with a better method that truly represents the will and vote of the American people. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered several methods of electing the President, Including allowing the members of congress, state Governors, state legislatures, and by direct election by the people (Staff, 2010). Because there was so many plans and thoughts on the process, a committee was formed which devised the Electoral College system. This plan received widespread approval by the delegates and was put in the final document. Article II, section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution spells out the process of selecting electors for the selection of President and Vice President. The Constitution
The original process for the presidential election is documented in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. Prior to the refined version of the Electoral College process, there was not a distinct election for the president and the vice-president; instead, the candidate with the most electoral votes would receive the title of president and the candidate with the second highest votes would become the vice-president. The twelfth amendment, ratified in 1804 became a necessity because of the problems that arose in 1800 presidential election. During the 1800 presidential election, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes, causing a tie; thus, choosing who would be the vice-president became a problem. This was an issue and the 12th Amendment had to be refine the process of the presidential election: resulting in upon a tie, the “House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.” The twelfth Amendment also specified that electors will cast two distinct votes: a vote for presidential candidate and a vote for a vice presidential candidate.
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
According to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, this was the original structure of the Electoral College. Each state was given a certain number of electors based on the number of state senators, which was always 2, as well as the number of U.S. representatives, which varied by decades based on the states population.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 went over several systems that were proposed for electing a new president which included but were not limited to by the governors of the states, by the state legislators, and by direct popular vote. The issue was soon referred to the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters, where the plan for the current electoral college was devised. The electoral college issued each state a number of electors equal to the sum of the
The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the President and Vice President, only one vote for the president and a different vote for the vice president, instead of voting for two presidents and the one with the least amount of votes be made the vice president. . (Kimberling)
So what is the electoral college as defined in the constitution? The electoral college is a slate of electors who will cast the real votes for the president and vice president. These electors are appointed by the state in proportional amount to the number of senators that each state are entitled by congress as well as entitled representatives.. The actions of these electors and the manner of how they will be chosen is outlined by the Constitution, “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall
The electoral college, per Wikipedia, is a mechanism set up to select the president and vice president of the United States. (The Electoral college, 2016) It was during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that the founders established Article 2. Article 2 Section 1 details the innerworkings of the executive branch of government. The constitution states, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress”. (The Constitution of the United States, n.d.) The framers of the Constitution had many different ideas about how the selection of our president should go but ultimately
The Electoral College dates back to the very founding of America and American politics. The way to elect the President was a hotly contested issue at the Constitutional Convention. Many options were considered, including selection by Congress, selection by state governors, selection by state legislatures, and direct popular vote (Electoral College 6). The final decision of the Founding Fathers was written in Article II, Sections II and III of the US Constitution:
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Founding Fathers could not decide if the president should be elected by Congress or elected by a popular vote, so they decided to create the Electoral College (“US Electoral College”). The Founding Fathers did not trust the people to vote on the right presidential candidate, so they decided that an indirect election was the best method (Becker). The Electoral College is a group of individuals who elect the president and vice president in the United States of America (TED-Ed). The number of electors that are given to each state is stated in Article II,
The constitution stated that each elector would have two votes they could cast for the presidential election, and they could only use one vote for a candidate that was from their state (if applicable). They would meet in the state they were representing, cast their two votes, and make a list of the amount of
I agree with that the Electoral College System should be done with. My reasoning for this is in any presidential election, the Electoral College is above the votes of the people of the United States of America. All that a candidate needs when they run for an election is 270 out of the 538 votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency. The Electoral College System over runs the election. It pushes aside the votes of the people and consequently decides who is going to be president for themselves. They say that the American people have a choice in who becomes their president, but it only takes 270 out of 538 of the Electoral College to choose the next president of the United States of America. If the Electoral College chooses who is going to be the next president then what is the reason for the American people to vote? There is
What is the electoral college? The electoral college is a group of electors chosen by the voters in each of the 50 states to elect the president and vice president of the United States of America.
As with many processes in the government the Electoral College has continued to evolve. Therefore, the Electoral College operates differently today than in the past. Originally, State Legislators chose the electors this has to be amended due the introduction of politically parties in 1836. (Presidential Elections, 1789-1996, 1997). Due to the “Time, Place and Manner Clause” states are allowed to chose the method in which electors are chosen, so due to this before 1836 some states used Winner-takes-all and some didn’t. (Peacock, 2017). Instead of the vice president winning in conjunction with the president, the vice president was chosen whichever candidate got the second most electoral votes. This was updated also because of political parties
“The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President…they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President” (Findlaw.com). The Twelfth Amendment set forth the rules and regulations for which the Office of President shall be determined. The founding fathers, in the second constitutional convention, laid the grounds on which setup what would be the Electoral College.
Since the constitution was ratified in 1787, the United States has chosen each president through the process of the Electoral College. Instead of directly voting for the U.S. president, the american people vote for a number of electors, who then cast their votes for a presidential candidate. The Electoral College is a complex system that is often misinterpreted because of the fact that citizens do not directly vote for president. The system of using the Electoral College to elect our president should be abolished because small states make little impact on elections, promotes the two-party system, and it makes the popular vote pointless.