The Electoral College Versus a Direct Election System
“The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President…they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President” (Findlaw.com). The Twelfth Amendment set forth the rules and regulations for which the Office of President shall be determined. The founding fathers, in the second constitutional convention, laid the grounds on which setup what would be the Electoral College.
Adoption of the Electoral College plan came late in the Convention, which had previously adopted on four occasions provisions for election of the executive by the Congress and had twice defeated proposals for election by the people directly. So why not conduct a direct election, by the people? After all, the President was to serve the people.
There were four main reasons why the delegates of the Second Constitutional Convention wanted an electoral system. For one, a census as a prelude to the first election could not be taken. The first election served more as an appointment. There was not time for delegates to go back home, while under this newly formed Constitution, and search for delegates. Who would serve to defend the Constitution while this happened? The delegates knew this before hand.
The states had a wide variety of suffrage requirements. If electors were to be chosen on the basis of population, should slaves count as a property, or under population? Even though they held large populations, the larger states rejected the idea of a popular vote. Virginia, one of the largest states of the time, had a population of 748,000. Of those, 306,000 were slaves, whic...
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...cedure, until a 3/5ths of the states decide against it. Even the Founders themselves once supported a direct election process, but as they researched the outcome of such a system, the repercussions and consequences outweighed the chance to be a true democracy. Even so in 2000, the Electoral College has seen action for 200 years, and it will continue standing in lieu of public scrutiny, and even dimpled chads.
Works Cited
Census.gov. Visited Dec 5. http://www.census.gov/.
Ferrand, Max, ed., Records of the Federal Convention. New Haven, 1911. 2:584
Findlaw.com. Visited Dec 6. http://www.findlaw.com/
James Madison to Henry Lee. 14 Jan. 1825, Records, ed. by Max Ferrand, 3:464.
Kuroda, Tadahisa. The Origins of the Twelfth Amendment. Greenwood. 1994.
Wood, Gordon. Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787. Chapel Hill 1969.
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The Electoral College started in 1789, even then controversy arose. Key factors supporting the Electoral College are representation in states with a small population, prioritizes the organization of campaigns, and provides equality throughout the United States. Candidates would campaign in the major populous regions, overlooking rural area. Virtually placing emphasis in the major cities, neglecting small towns leaving them obsolete. Keep America a two-party system intact in important, how could a candidate win the majority with four or five parties. The South would vote their candidate, California their candidate, East Coast their candidate, causing an enormous problem, avoiding a recount, saving time and
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
The Electoral College can be a bit confusing to understand. It was created by the founding fathers and according to the History, Art & Archives, U.S House of Representatives, “…established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States.
The Electoral College was created by the framers at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. They believe that it wasn’t a good idea for the people to elect the president directly because they did not trust that voters would have enough information to make a good choice. The Electoral College basically chooses who the next president will be since it takes away our freedom to vote away. The Electoral College should be abolished because it’s undemocratic, the small states are overrepresented, and it hurts third parties.
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The Constitutional Convention of 1787 gave birth to the Electoral College system. The Electoral College system can be briefly described as a system where voters are able to vote for candidates(electors) on election day. Electors then cast their vote for a candidate in their respective party. Our Founding Fathers described the electoral college system in Article
The Electoral College Should Be Abolished Many years after the United States was founded, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself; they later came to settle on the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a system in which the president and vice president are chosen indirectly. In general, the delegates did not believe that a direct popular vote was acceptable, however that it should be decided by the US senators and representatives instead. The way in which it works: a candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes to be officially declared president. If no candidate obtains a majority, the US Representatives selects the president from the top three contenders; this means each state receives
Harness, Jill. “The History And Impact Of The Red Cross.” Mental Floss. N.p., 29 Oct
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On April 26, 1986 the worlds worst nuclear disaster happened just outside the town of Pripyat. Located not too far from the capital city Kiev, Ukraine. According to History.com, More than 70,000 people have suffered from the effects of this disaster. Along with much of the land (18 square miles) around that area will not be habitable for the next 150 years, forcing as many as 150,000 citizens to re-locate permanently. At the time of the explosion, Chernobyl was the largest and the oldest nuclear power plant in the world. With four 1,000 megawatt reactors, one reactor explosion and meltdown could affect hundreds, if not thousands of people. Still, the soviet government tried to cover it up or hide this from its own people, as well as the rest of the world. The Soviet Union initially reported the death of two individuals and requested advice for fight graphite fires. Even as Sweden was starting to pick up dangerous levels of radioactivity, the Soviet Union continued to not take responsibility and warn surrounding nations. It wasn't until years later that the full story is released to the public.
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The next step of the convention was more democratic, in that there were delegates sent to Philadelphia by the state legislatures (Roche 18). Since the legislatures were chosen by elections in the states, the delegates to the convention were indirectly chosen by the people. Rhode Island did not send delegates, but there was an opportunity for them to do so. They decided against sending anyone since they knew they would not be welcomed by the convention.
Peterson, Candida C., James L. Peterson, and Diane Seeto. Child Developement. Vol. 54. N.p.: Blackwell Publishing, n.d. JSTOR. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
Anthropology encompasses four main aspects in the field: archaeology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology. All four areas must collect data and find a way to interpret the data collected. Data is then interpreted with the use of theories. The data would be useless to any anthropologist without any meaning. Theory helps an anthropologist choose what data to collect and how to interpret the results. Authors McGee and Warms assert that theory “helps us think about who and what we are as human beings,” (2). Basic understanding of different anthropological theories enlightens anthropologist about different cultures by attempting to understand and learn from each other. Overtime some theories have been disregarded due to