The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College
Who 's voting for the president? Not you. We live in a society where your vote
doesn 't directly count during a presidential election. This is due to an antiquated
system called the electoral college. The electoral college (EC) was founded in 1787.
The founding fathers set up the system so that the president is chosen
indirectly. This was done so that "popular passion," wouldn 't factor in as much.
Basically they didn 't want presidential campaigns to become purely advertisement
campaigns. (third party times)
But there are a few serious flaws in the electoral college that need to be dealt
with. For example, the well known Democratic motto "one man, one vote," (which
means every vote counts) doesn 't apply to presidential elections …show more content…
Bush still won the presidency
because Florida (a key state in elections) had a last minute change in the electoral
votes. This threw the entire state into a republican vote.
"On two other occasions (1800 and 1824), the House of Representatives
2
picked the president when nobody won an electoral-college majority. Thomas
Jefferson once described this circumstance as 'the most dangerous blot on our
Constitution. ' " (electoral college)
Lawrence P. Longley and Neal R. Pierce, two experts on the electoral college
and Harvard teachers, agree wholeheartedly with Jefferson 's statement. They know
full well the weaknesses of the EC. They did some calculations to illustrate this point
further. Californians have over two times as much voting power as do people in
Montana because of the population differences.
Even worse than that is, if even a few votes change in some key states it can
change the whole outcome of an election. e.g. the 2000 Florida elections. There have
been 22 razor close elections in our history one of which was " the 1960 race
between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon--if 8,971 votes in Illinois and Missouri
had switched from Kennedy to Nixon that year, the result would have been
doesn 't directly count during a presidential election. This is due to an antiquated
system called the electoral college. The electoral college (EC) was founded in 1787.
The founding fathers set up the system so that the president is chosen
indirectly. This was done so that "popular passion," wouldn 't factor in as much.
Basically they didn 't want presidential campaigns to become purely advertisement
campaigns. (third party times)
But there are a few serious flaws in the electoral college that need to be dealt
with. For example, the well known Democratic motto "one man, one vote," (which
means every vote counts) doesn 't apply to presidential elections …show more content…
Bush still won the presidency
because Florida (a key state in elections) had a last minute change in the electoral
votes. This threw the entire state into a republican vote.
"On two other occasions (1800 and 1824), the House of Representatives
2
picked the president when nobody won an electoral-college majority. Thomas
Jefferson once described this circumstance as 'the most dangerous blot on our
Constitution. ' " (electoral college)
Lawrence P. Longley and Neal R. Pierce, two experts on the electoral college
and Harvard teachers, agree wholeheartedly with Jefferson 's statement. They know
full well the weaknesses of the EC. They did some calculations to illustrate this point
further. Californians have over two times as much voting power as do people in
Montana because of the population differences.
Even worse than that is, if even a few votes change in some key states it can
change the whole outcome of an election. e.g. the 2000 Florida elections. There have
been 22 razor close elections in our history one of which was " the 1960 race
between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon--if 8,971 votes in Illinois and Missouri
had switched from Kennedy to Nixon that year, the result would have been