Persuasive Essay On The Electoral College

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Unknowingly to many Americans, when they go to vote on Election day, they aren 't actually voting for their favorite presidential candidate but, they are actually voting to elect a group of state electors, who will select the president on the behalf of the general public. They have pledged to vote for a specific candidate in the Electoral College, which is the group of representatives that actually elects the President and Vice President. Currently, the Electoral College has 538 members who represent each state, equal to the number of representatives and senators that represent the state in Congress. One exception is Washington D.C. who still has three electoral votes, despite not having any representation in congress. For a candidate to win …show more content…

The system that the Electoral college runs guarantees that the small states will have a significant voice in the elections that is why we see that candidates can not ignore the smaller states. This also would help to explain why Donald Trump is campaigning in a state such as New Hampshire, which only has 4 electoral votes. This leads to candidates being more diverse in their campaigning approach, as they often see themselves trying to appeal to various different states spanning from heavily populates to sparse cities. Over the past few decades we see that the results from the polls have become fairly predictable, taking a more stabilized approach, but in doing so this has reduced the impact that some of the larger states could have in the general …show more content…

The Electoral College makes candidates invest their resources in states that have a greater impact on the outcome of the election. But now we see that smaller states have just about the same impact on the outcome than some of the bigger states. Candidates know they cannot secure the presidency without winning the popular vote, as the electoral college system has all but ensured that. This is due to the "winner-take-all" approach that has been created in this system, as a candidate would get all the electors in the Electoral College if they win the respective

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