The Electoral College: The Implications Of The Electoral College

2016 is slowly approaching as 2015 comes to an end and thus ushers in a new President at the end of the year! The 2016 election will be held on November 8th, 2016 and will be the 58th quadrennial presidential election. With each presidential election comes the controversy on the basis of how they were elected. Primarily, the publics opinion on the electoral college and how it is the actual determining factor in who is chosen for presidency. The problems that may spring forward will be what the electoral college actually is and how it works, why the founding fathers created the Electoral College, major criticisms on the Electoral College, and why it should be abolished. The Electoral College is a system of 538 directly elected “electors”, or government officials, who serve the people. “The number 538 is the sum of the nation’s 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 electors given to the District of Columbia.”, according to

This happens when the percentage of states with more electoral votes is greater than the population percentage of population voting for a candidate. “It has happened at least four times out of the 56 presidential elections, or more than 7 percent of the time, which is not such a small percentage, and it created a hideous mess every time,” said Minnpost. Another issue outlined by Minnpost is the sites view on the framers intention of the electoral college. They talk about how the framers intended to have the vote for president be taken to the House as a more naturalized event. “When the Framers put that crazy structure, where the presidential election would be thrown from the Electoral College into the House for a one-state one-vote choice of the next president, they believed this would actually happen on a regular basis” they are saying the way we are voting is different than how the framers saw it to