Preview

The Failure Of The Electoral College

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
554 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Failure Of The Electoral College
Many Americans believe they pick the President of United States on Election day. The truth is, we really don't have a say so. We, in reality, just vote for State Electors who then hold the electoral vote to vote for the next president. This is an unjust way to do this in a “democratic” country. I do not believe the electoral college is an equitable way to elect the President of United States. Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of United States, had agreed with the electoral college. He says, “It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    a strong central government was intended to favor the elite class and allowed the National…

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every four years, the Electoral College enjoys a fleeting moment of fame. But the impact of the college on presidential elections is far greater and more controversial than its brief life indicates.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electoral college is a process that is set up by our founding fathers in the constitution; it is a “compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens” (U.S Electoral College). Electoral college is an example of indirect democracy; therefore, we do not choose our president directly. Thus, electoral college is not democratic.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When citizens vote and cast their ballot for the candidate that they believe will be fit for president, they are not voting directly for their favored candidate. Instead of a direct popular election, the United States has the Electoral College, a group of elected electors who represent a certain states votes. The Electoral College was established by the constitution to protect minority interests and reduce the possibility of a regional candidate. However, some believe that the advantages of a direct popular vote election, such as its consideration of democratic values, outweigh the disadvantages. While others believe that the Electoral College has been put in place to hinder regional candidates not allow it to happen.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Additionally, they did not want to give the power to one of the branches. If they gave it to one of the the branches, that branch would have more power than the others. Eventually, the Committee on Postponed matters came up with a solution that the people vote would affect who wins but would not directly elect the president. Nowadays, this solution is called the electoral college. In the case of the electoral college, the electors vote for the president based on the popular vote in the state. Each political party picks a specific number of electors who have helped with the campaign and then wait for the presidential results from one's state to come in. The specific number is the total number of the two senators plus the number of Representatives they have in the house, which changes from state to state. Once the results have come in, depending on which party wins, those representatives from that party go to their state capital and put in the official vote. In conclusion, the electoral college works to an extent, but some changes are…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College, established by the founding fathers in the United States Constitution, is a process whereby a body of electors chosen by voters in each state cast a formal vote to elect the president and vice president. Among many other things established within the Constitution, the Electoral College requires extensive reform. The Constitution itself was merely a framework for the United States government and did not take into account the extent to which society would change between 1787 and 2015. Amidst the several problems constituted by the Electoral College, the four most threatening complications consist of the possibility for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote, the inequality among the distribution of votes according to population, the exclusion of third party victors, and the consequences that arise in case of a tie.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College is an institution that may have served a purpose 200 years ago when the founding fathers needed a system that would be met with approval by both large and small states. The Electoral College is a flawed method of electing our President that has created problems in previous elections and is likely to be the source of problems in the future. The Electoral College provides an undemocratic method of choosing our president that potentially undermines the will of the voters. Not only can a candidate be elected without actually winning the most votes, it puts our elections at the mercy of electors who don't always cast their vote as pledged. I intend to demonstrate that the problems inherent in this voting method far outweigh any benefits it may provide. Replacing the winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes with a system such as proportional representation or eliminating the college altogether in favor of direct election is the best way to ensure a trouble-free and fair election…

    • 2120 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The founding fathers were not gods. Consequently, they were not perfect, and neither were the systems they set up to run the country. Nevertheless, they knew that things would change, and they set up ways to fix the government when needed. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the American people have the right to alter or abolish the government if it does not fit their needs. The Electoral College is flawed, and the American people need to replace it because this system does not fairly represent the people, it forces people to vote a certain way, and it does not always guarantee that the winner of the popular vote will win the election. These imperfections in the Electoral College make voters feel like their votes…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    After an extensive review of ten articles, I have developed the following information: The President of the United States is not chosen due to popular vote, but rather due to the fact that the framers of the constitution created the Electoral College. Americans have questioned the system since its creation. (Uselton, 2008) The Electoral College was born due out of the the debate whether congress had the power to elect a president, or did the public’s national vote. One wonders if because we have such a democracy in place, does the American vote really count? Recently during the 2012 Presidential election, this researcher asked her husband if he had voted yet. He replied “yea, but who cares, it didn’t count anyway”. (W. K. Ellis, & M. J. Ellis, personal communication, November 13, 2012). It boggles the mind to think how many Americans think that and don’t even bother to get out and vote. I think as Americans we have lost our way in the political system. It is complex and difficult to understand. No longer do people gather at the barbershop to talk about politics and process. They spend their time watching sports on the big screen while waiting for their haircut. Poplar vote wins you nothing in the political arena; the big game takes place at the Electoral College. Let us start with the origins of our political system. The Electoral College was developed to assist in the debate of who…

    • 2317 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College In the United States, we the people are guaranteed a vote in our government. Built upon the principles of freedom and democracy, The United States has striven to give equal representation to the people. Presidential elections are held to give people the chance to vote for who they believe will best serve the country. The electoral college is in place and adds an extra step in the presidential election process.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Alexander Hamilton’s writing, “The Federalists Papers No. 68,” Hamilton argues that the president should be democratically chosen through representatives of each state. Each state should have the same amount of votes as they have senators and representatives. The delegates should be able to decide between candidates and know their qualifications for the job. The delegates should meet in their state and tell the national government what their decision is. In order for the candidate to be elected they must have a majority of votes: if there is not a majority then the House of Representatives will decide who will be president. The Vice President is the candidate who has the second highest amount of votes. The Vice President will be the presiding…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Electoral College Reform

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Electoral College system is the process of a president and vice-president election into office. This is a compromise established by our founding fathers in the United States Constitution. “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows: 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: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit…

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Electoral College is A constitutional compromise between the opposing political factions to elect the president. The idea of the Electoral College was founded by the Founding Father mainly Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was among the first to write about the concept of electors in the Federalist Papers in 1788. The term “Electoral College” came in use from a functional…

    • 1702 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electoral College

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators. There have been four presidents to win the presidency without actually winning the popular vote of the nation. The most recent incident of this was the 2000 election of President George W. Bush, and this sparked a new interest in changing the system. There are two states, Nebraska and Maine that currently use their electoral votes a little differently than the other 48 states. They allot two electoral votes to the statewide winner and the rest according to the winner in each congressional district. This is one change to the system that is currently being presented by legislators in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Another possible change is the “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote”, or the NPV compact. It would require electors to vote for the candidate who wins the most votes nationwide. An issue with this change is that the president would most likely be elected from votes of more populated areas like big cities that have similar beliefs and the smaller states and rural areas voices’ would be lost due to them being so spread out. One major concern for the NPV compact is that it could lead to corruption of the voting process by candidates being blackmailed with the threat of losing votes if the blackmailer’s demands weren’t met. Also…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who 's voting for the president? Not you. We live in a society where your vote…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays