Electoral College Pros And Cons

The Founding Fathers had many issues to take into consideration when trying to figure out a proper presidential election system. There were many proposed ideas on how new presidents should be elected, such as having congress choose the president, having state legislatures select the president, having the president elected by a direct popular vote, and lastly having an indirect election of the president through the College of Electors, or Electoral College. The first three ideas were rejected because most felt that making such a choice would leave too many hard feelings in the Congress and upset the balance between the different legislative branches, it would promote and welcome bargaining and unfair manipulation, and the president would always be decided by the largest, most populous states only. They eventually decided on the last option of having an indirect election of the president through a group of people that became the college of electors. (http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/INFORMATION/electcollege_history.php)

The Electoral College was set up in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution for

They both present good arguments backing their reasoning behind whether they agree with the system or not. Critics who believe in the reformation of the electoral college argue that the electoral college opens up the possibility of electing a minority president due to the risk of so-called "faithless" electors. This would mean that certain electors do not vote for their party 's designated candidate like they pledged to. There is also the argument that the Electoral College plays a major role in depressing voter turnout. This could be the case if people really think about and understand the electoral college, thus realizing that they are voting purely for electors and not directly voting for the next president. The electoral college therefore does not accurately reflect the national popular