Importance Of The Electoral College

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Electoral College Worth It Or Not?

In 2000 the election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was a heated election, where it came down to the wire. As history tells, George Bush won the election simply because he received more electoral votes, but he did not end up winning everything. Al Gore actually won the popular vote meaning more individual people voted for Gore than Bush, but Bush won because of the Electoral College. If the whole entire purpose of the Electoral College is to help candidates get the “winner takes all strategy.” How is it possible for one candidate to win the popular but lose the Electoral College? Maybe the Electoral College is not accomplishing what it was originally organized to do. Others believe that it is another …show more content…

The Electoral College works as follows, electoral points vary state to state from 3 points all the way to 55. In order for one candidate to become President, they have to reach the magical number of 270 electoral votes out of the 538 that are possible. Originally this system was established because the government was trying to find a way to make the smaller states more active and important in the elections. So they formulated a system where it would take power away from the bigger states and transfer them to the smaller states. Seems fair, right? Wrong! In today’s day and age, the Electoral College does not follow American values. In fact it goes against these values, with the idea of majority rules: a candidate is able to win an election while not winning the popular vote in some states. A big majority of citizens are left out of elections because their vote doesn’t count towards anything. Thus, the Electoral College should be done away …show more content…

“In 2012, more than 99% of general election ad spending was targeted at voters in only ten states”(Richie). What this means is that candidates are not even concentrated on pleasing all the american people. They select the important few that live in important states. Many are not even paid attention to, their votes essentially do not matter to the candidates. But if it were popular vote than presidential candidates would then have to make sure that all of America was pleased with their campaign instead of a select few. Secondly instead of winning the entire state, why wouldn 't it be better for the candidates to only win a fraction of the state? Such as breaking up the electoral votes. The winner takes all strategy is no longer working as we can see candidates do not spend time in states such as Idaho or Utah. If they were to break up the vote they would finally be able to say that their voting method provides equal representation. Finally swing states make the elections intense, but it leaves out all the other states. “Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and their running mates held a combined total of 149 campaign events in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia during the fall campaign, but none in New York, California, Texas, and 35 other states”(Richie). This easy shows that they do not pay attention to any other states that

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