The Influence Of The Electoral College

A democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Sixty-five out of the world’s 125 democracies choose their leaders through direct election by voters. Thirty other democracies are classified as constitutional monarchies. The remaining thirty are classified as indirect election. However, only the United States has a system in which voters elect a body of electors, whose only purpose is to choose the president. This system is known as the Electoral College, which was established by the Founding Fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. There are many ways of choosing the leader of a nation to represent

On the first Tuesday in November, voters cast their ballots for a presidential candidate. These votes count towards a group of electors who pledge a vote for a specific candidate in the Electoral College. Acknowledging the strong regional interests and loyalties which have played a large part in American history, proponents argue that the Electoral College system contributes to the unity of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support in order for a candidate to be elected president. Without such system, the president of the United States would be chosen through the domination of large urban areas over rural areas. As a result, residents in Idaho and Wyoming would be ignored in favor of California and Texas, leaving rural areas and small towns marginalized. Thus, the Electoral College system enhances minority status. Even though the Electoral College protects minority interests, the candidate that the majority of American citizens want as their president will not necessarily win over the presidency. Because each state gets two electors for its senators regardless of population, less populated states are overrepresented. One of the key reasons that George W. Bush won the Electoral College vote against Al Gore in the 2000 election without winning the popular vote was that he did better in the smaller states. Bush narrowly won the election, with 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266, but lost the popular vote. In the recent election of 2016, despite the fact that Hillary Clinton won almost three million more votes in the general election than Donald Trump, Trump won the Electoral College and the presidency. Just as in 2000 when George W. Bush received fewer nationwide popular votes than Al Gore, Donald Trump will serve as the President of the United States despite being supported by fewer