The Founders built certain protections for individual rights into this country's founding documents. The United States Constitution was one such document. In particular, such protections guard Americans who hold minority viewpoints from those who side with the majority. For example, the First Amendment protects the right of free speech to ensure that people who hold unpopular views have just as much freedom to express those views as do people who tend to agree with the majority. The United States Constitution, therefore, was intended to protect the individual rights of Americans from a tyrannical government and majority. However, today, the Electoral College does not represent the vibrant democracy into which the United States has grown. Americans do not vote for their presidential or vice-presidential candidate. Instead, they indicate their preference of candidate. Whichever candidate gets a plurality of the vote in a state gets all the Electors for that state. Each state's number of Electors is based on the number of Representatives and Senators it has in Congress. Once a candidate gets a plurality, the Electors vote in the "Electoral College" (a sort of caucus in their state six weeks after the election) for that candidate. So a candidate who gets just one more vote than the other in a given state wins all the votes from that state. Notably, although it is called a College, the Electoral College is a process administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It is not a particular place (NARA 1). The Electoral College should be abolished because the United States today is much more populous and very different than when the founders wrote the Constitution more than two centuries ago (Raasch 1)... ... middle of paper ... ...lity of the votes (Shugart 632). Each states would be important under such a system, as candidates would be forced to address as many voters as possible, not just "voting blocs" that could swing a plurality in the state and, therefore, the entire state. More people would participate in elections because they would know that every vote did indeed count. Works Cited Kimberling, William. "The Electoral College." FEC Office of Election Administration. . [13 November 2004]. (NARA) National Archives and Records Administration. "The Electoral College." . [13 November 2004]. Raasch, Chuck. "Electoral College Debate Intensifies." USA Today. 24 September 2004. . [13 November 2004]. Shugart, Matthew. "Elections: The American Process of Selecting a President: A Comparative Perspective." Presidential Studies, 34, 3 (September 2004): 632-656.
Every four years, the citizens of America migrate to their respective polling locations and cast their vote. On this important day, the second Tuesday of November, the next President of the United States is elected. The election race for United States presidential candidates undergo a political marathon, negotiating primaries, party conventions and an electoral college system along the way. The electoral college is one of the main aspect of a presidential election. The Electoral College is made up of electors in each state, who represent the states popular vote. Each presidential party or candidate designates a group of electors in each state, equal to the States electoral votes, who are considered to be loyal to that candidate, to each State’s
In conclusion, the Electoral College should be abolished because small states are unrepresented, there are many flaws in the system, and it is not accurate based on people 's votes. Overall there seems to be no need for it, it was made for the reason that back then they thought it was a simple way of choosing a president, but really it just causes problems and does not represent the candidates or voters fairly. If America is truly about equality and democracy, then they will abolish the Electoral College and let the people have a
The Electoral College today is a very complex system of voting and campaigning. When it was first created, the Framers thought the average citizen of their day was not intelligent enough to know who should be leading their country. So they created the Electoral College which was run by people who knew what they were doing. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent each state and they determine the president. The real question is: Has the Electoral College gotten too far out of hand where it needs to go? The answer is yes. The reasons are because any third party candidate running in the election has no chance of winning any electoral votes. Also, it gives too much power to the big states in electoral votes. Finally, it creates problems on majority electoral votes and equality of smaller states is diminished.
After all my research done on the Electoral College, in my opinion the Electoral College should be abolished. Although much of the nation believes that the Electoral College should be kept, there are many reasons as to why the Electoral College should be abolished. First off, the fact that there is a possibility that the popular vote of the citizens is not really taken into consideration when it comes down to electing a president that will rule over them. Although the citizens are allowed to cast a vote in favor of the particular candidate that they wish to elect, it is not necessary that the electoral vote reflects the votes cast by majority of the population of that state.
One perspective on this topic is from Elizabeth Deatrick, who wrote "What is the Electoral College;" a separate duo of authors, Jeffrey Bowman and Tracey M. DiLascio add onto the subject with their article, "Counterpoint: Why We Need the Electoral College." The Electoral College should not be reformed nor abolished because it is a system that works as it was first intended by the Founding Fathers, it would cause trouble in the future if we did put through a bill to change it, and despite the arguments from opposing sides that gripe about how unfair it is to small states, it is impossible to deny that without this system, the opinions from small states would be valued at nothing; if anything, the College protects and aids these states. Ultimately, it comes down to this: we should not fix what is not
Voting for one's future leader is an immense responsibility and a strong government move that was ahead of its time when first established. As Abraham Lincoln once said “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” The Electoral College must be abolished in order for every citizen's ballot to be stronger than the bullet. Democracy will be a virtue that this country will always be privileged enough endure for it is the foundation of America. The Electoral College however is only impeding the the democratic nationalism. The Electoral College does not prove to be an accurate representation of the American people, therefore even the republic that is in place is taking away one of the basic principles that was bestowed upon America. Popular sovereignty must be effective on a national level as opposed to the state level. Although the popular vote of the Electoral College does take popular votes it does not take it on the national level. That is the problem of this system and because there is no impeccable way of mending this wretched system, it has to be abolished for the sake of all american
The Electoral College while very controversial, should be kept in place for several reasons that will be covered in this paper. Our countries founders put the Electoral College in place for a reason. The original idea was for the most knowledgeable and informed individuals from each state to select the president and represent the entire state. These ideas can be dated all the way back into Rome, where the same type of system was utilized. While the Electoral College has certainly developed over the years it’s the same basic idea. Each state is represented by its chosen leaders. The number of Electoral votes that a state receives depends on the number of US Representatives plus 2 senators. Politicians generally base their campaigns around so called “swing states” that could go either way. The controversy arises with the fact that it’s possible for a candidate to win the popular vote, however lose in the Electoral College, and therefor lose the election.
Two days after Donald Trump won the Presidential Election, this cry could be heard across the country. Why should I accept Donald Trump as my President when I didn’t vote for him? In the words of Senator Barbara Boxer, “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately.” However, contrary to the negative feelings of several people, is the Electoral College actually an outdated, undemocratic system? Currently, there is a bill in Congress calling for the abolition of the Electoral College in favor of a National Popular vote. However, I believe that the Electoral College should not be abolished in favor of a National Popular vote.
Each state chooses Electors through a two-part process. The first part of the process is when each political party chooses Electors within each state. This is done during the primary elections, when parties narrow down who will represent their party. Then, on Election Day, the voters in each state choose Electors for their state (About the Electors).
The Electoral College is a system where the President is directly elected. This process has been used in many past elections as well as the current 2016 election. This process also helps narrow down the large numbers that were made by the popular votes, into a smaller number that is easier to work with for electing the President. Some states use a system called “winner-takes-all”, which is another system that is connected with the Electoral College. This allows a candidate with the most electoral votes, to get the rest of the votes that the state provides.
The Electoral College should be abolished because of its undemocratic system, its discrimination against voters in different states, and the subversion of its original purpose as was intended by the Framers.
Some feel that this system is “unfair”, and wish to abolish or reform the Electoral College. Those who view it as such are generally individuals whom care solely about presidential elections, wanting their favorable candidate elected. One of the arguments against the Electoral College is “certain votes don’t count.” And that a few states get more votes than other states. For instance, the Bush vs Gore election. In this election, President Bush won by the electoral college vote, but lost the popular vote by a very small margin. Some states appear to have more power in presidential elections, and this is true, because the states with more legislative representatives get more votes because they have more representatives per population, which is
The Electoral College is a flawed idea that should be abolished. Despite it being the only thing that is used, it is still unfair, the system is somewhat complicated, and does not represent the citizens properly.
The Electoral College should be abolished. The first reason that the Electoral College should be abolished is because it is unfair. According to Document A, candidates won’t even need electoral votes from half of the fifty states to win the election. This is important because as long as the candidate appeal to the states with the most electoral votes, such as California and Texas, they can easily win. States from the northwest region have low electoral votes compared to the northeast region, meaning even if the candidate receive their approval and electoral votes, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Another reason that it should be abolished is because the Electoral College does not represent the voters fairly. According to Document D, states
The electoral college has kept the USA together, it’s given the United States stability and has distributed power equally between the north and the (previously) slaveholding southern states, but now comes the question, does it still work? Should the presidential election continue to use the system of election (the electoral college, a system of indirect voting where each state holds a general election in order to elect electoral voters who then represent that state in the election for president) that it uses now? The answer? No, the electoral college should be abolished because it creates inequality between voters, it doesn’t allow third parties a shot at winning, and it doesn’t represent the wishes of the general population.