“Every four years, we hear the words “Electoral College” over and over again. But we never talk about what a ridiculous, and frankly undemocratic system it really is” (Collegehumor). This quote was said by Adam Conover on a video for College Humor posted on Youtube.com. I believe this to be a very true statement. To have an undemocratic system in place at this time of age to me means that the people in charge don’t see what is wrong with it. This is what I believe is one of the problems with the country now. The deification for Electoral College states that is it “A body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the president and vice president of the U.S.” (Dictionary.com). With the current events going on in the political system at this time, I believe that the President of the United States of America should be voted in by popular vote. One of the first thing wrong with the Electoral …show more content…
They classify a Faithless Electors as “… member of the Electoral College who, for whatever reason, do not vote for their party’s designated candidate” (FairVote). When the people of the Electoral College are chosen to be, they agree to vote for their political party member they would like to because President. Then the member does not do this or votes for a different member of the same party of a different party, this can lead to a major change of the outcome of the election. One would think that this would be uncommon thing to happen but since 1787 when the Electoral College was founded; there have been 157 faithless electors (FairVote). With having done 56 presidential elections over this great countries life, this should not be common. With the problem of faithless electors, “There have been 7 such Electors in this century and as recently as 1988...”(Kimberling). When this is done electors have the chance to change the outcome of an election because of their
The Electoral College vs. Popular Vote The United States is a privileged country with freedoms and opportunities many countries strive to achieve. People come into the United States in hopes of obtaining these rights and a better life for themselves; they strive to achieve “The American Dream.” Citizens are given the chance to vote, speak their mind, and live according to their desires without prejudice. However, the same government that promises hope has flaws that frustrate the American people: the Electoral College is one topic of debate. Many feel this system is a safe way to regulate who leads the country, while others feel that issues should be left to popular vote.
Electoral College is Wrong The Electoral College is the name given to a group of electors who are nominated by political activists and party members within the states. The electoral college really isn't necessary and should be abolished. There are numerous reasons why this is so important. With the Electoral College in effect, third parties don't have a chance to become the president, which isn't fair.
The fact that the popular vote holds no power to whom becomes president shows that only some of the people have the power. This seems like a sign that our own government doesn’t have faith in the population to make an educated decision on who should become president. The way smaller states votes are more important than bigger states, shows that states are still not equal in power. The way to win the presidency is more of a strategy than having the ideas to be elected. An example of this is how the electoral college elected George Bush when Al Gore won the popular vote. George Bush is said to be one of the United States worst presidents and was elected through a thought to be flawed system. I also feel as though corruption plays a role in the electoral college compared to the popular vote being authentic. I think this should be replaced with a system of electronic voting that could accurately and clearly show who the majority of the population voted for. But I also think that some sort of requirements to vote should be enacted. Education plays a big role in politics and I feel as though there are people who just vote to be voting with no kind of background knowledge. As bad as it sounds I feel like it could narrow a better decision being made than smaller, less developed states being “mind controlled” into voting for
Since then, the U.S. has grown from a mere 4 million to a looming number of around 300 million people. It is because of this population increase that the Electoral College has become obsolete and is beginning to fail at its duties. Alexander Hamilton was a Federalist and a supporter of the Electoral College who was quoted as saying “It was also desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder/ promise an effectual security against this mischief” (Document #1). The College would have prevented tumult and disorder for many years, but nowadays, it isn’t capable of keeping 300 million people calm.
Under the process of the Electoral College, a member of the general electorate casts a vote for the candidate in the set party but since there’s no federal law that requires elector to vote for their set candidate. The elector doesn’t have to cast a vote for the initially agreed candidate. However, twenty-nine states and the district of Columbia have states law that bounds electors to casted their vote to whichever party thy have pledged to but still there are 21 states in the union that have no control. Therefore, despite the outcome of a state’s popular vote, the state’s elector have the freedom to vote in whatever manner they so choose to without any legal repercussions (Kimberling, 2000). Even in the states with the laws, the repercussion is slim to nothing. For example, during the 2000 elections, Barbara Lett-Simmons was an electoral from the District of Columbia in the Democratic party and see didn’t cast a vote for presidential candidate President Al Gore when she was supposed to. She didn’t have any repercussion but it calls doubt from the American people in the electoral college because if the vote isn’t going to the candidate in which it supposed to be then why is there even an electoral college. So since the electors of the electoral college isn’t going to vote for the candidate in which they pledge to then faithless electors show the
The Electoral College system should be scrapped and be replaced with popular vote because it is unfair. By abolishing the Electoral College and replacing it with popular vote, it would represent citizens equally, it would allow citizens to elect their president just as they elect their governors and senators, and it would motivate and encourage citizens to participate in voting.
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. The Electoral College should be abolished because it’s undemocratic, the small states are overrepresented, and it hurts third parties. The United States of America is a democratic country that is characterized by the equality of rights and privileges.
In America, voting for the President is a privilege and a lie. Many Americans think when they go to the polls in November, they are voting for the President of the United States; but really, they are voting for a group of electors who have pledged to support a nominee for the President. The Founding Fathers were concerned that presidents would always come from a populous state and wondered whether the public would have the knowledge of various candidates necessary to make a wise selection. They did not have access to technology like the internet or smart phones as we do. In most states, as the result of the election, the state awards all its electors to the winning candidate (Belenky 1308). A Presidential a candidate must win 270 Electoral
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
The Electoral College today is a very complex system of voting and campaigning. When it was first created, the Framers thought the average citizen of their day was not intelligent enough to know who should be leading their country. So they created the Electoral College which was run by people who knew what they were doing. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent each state and they determine the president. The real question is: Has the Electoral College gotten too far out of hand where it needs to go? The answer is yes. The reasons are because any third party candidate running in the election has no chance of winning any electoral votes. Also, it gives too much power to the big states in electoral votes. Finally, it creates problems on majority electoral votes and equality of smaller states is diminished.
To enforce voting to be mandatory , this will prompt more Americans to pay attention to the choices for their representatives. Mandating would stimulate the demand side, motivating voters to understand and acknowledge who they are voting for. Therefore , voting is to be a responsibility than a option.
The Electoral College was a compromise between those at the Constitutional Convention who wanted the US president elected by popular vote and those who wanted congress to select the president. They believed that having it where each state would get a certain number of votes based on population would keep a manipulative and charming person out of office. They thought it would prevent bribery and corruption along with secret dealings. I don’t think that this is the case and it one of the reason I feel that the Electoral College should be abolished.
In the United States we are all guaranteed one vote per person. Everyone has an equal voice in electing the people that serve in the government. Every four years during the month of November citizens of America go to the polls to vote for a president and vice-president of the United States. Am I right? Not really. They actually vote for electors that then vote for our president. It makes me wonder, "Are we a democracy?" Having the Electoral College defeats its purpose. I oppose the electoral college for these three reasons, in election 2000 the president that lost the popular vote actually won, everyone's vote doesn't really count, plus the electoral college has disrupted elections fifteen times!
There are many debates on how to fix the electoral college, but which one is truly the superior? The electoral college was formed to keep certain states from being the ones who basically choose our president. Alexander Hamilton wanted to have a fair opportunity for every state; he wanted us to all be truly equals, but as the country grew different states got more representation. More and more states chose to give their whole state the title of their party, but is this really what we need?
The Electoral College is a system where the President is directly elected. This process has been used in many past elections as well as the current 2016 election. This process also helps narrow down the large numbers that were made by the popular votes, into a smaller number that is easier to work with for electing the President. Some states use a system called “winner-takes-all”, which is another system that is connected with the Electoral College. This allows a candidate with the most electoral votes, to get the rest of the votes that the state provides. This has made it very unfair to many people, because the Electoral College has the most advantage for candidates. The Electoral College is a very unfair system that causes any candidate to win easily if he or she has the highest votes, and makes the number of voters