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 …show more content…
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
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
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 is a group of five hundred and thirty-eight people who, every four years, decide our countries president and vice president. This number is created by taking the House of Representatives (four hundred and thirty-eight members elected per stated based upon population), The Senate (Two representatives elected per state), and three representatives from the
Throughout the years, there has been much controversial concerning the Electoral College and whether or not it should be abolished. There was multiple way that were being considered at the time of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Some including election of the President and Vice President by the Congress, by the governors of each state, by the state legislation, and by direction popular vote. Each idea was found to have some flaw which then lead to the creation of the Committee of Eleven which was is currently known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the United States of America who formally case votes for the election of the President and Vice President”. The process
The Electoral College can be considered one of the more misunderstood parts of our government. People have many misconceptions on how it works, at least I did until I took this class. When the Framers were developing how their new government was going to work, they ran into many problems. One of those problems was they has different ideas on how the president and vice president were to be elected. Some wanted to elect them like they do in Great Brittan with the parliament electing the prime minister. Others disagreed. The compromise was the creation of what we now call the Electoral College.
What is the Electoral College? Well for one, it isn’t a college, nor a place at all. The Electoral College is a process. What process? It is the process of choosing a president. “You mean when America votes for a president?” someone such as the reader might ask. Close but no, not exactly, The Electoral College consists of 538 electors who then vote in a president. When A Patriotic citizen, also known as a voter, votes on his or her president and in turn voting for that presidents electors. There are 538 electors in total. The amount of electors depends on the number of congressmen plus three. There are 435 members of the house of representatives, one-hundred senators,
In the Electoral College system, every state has one electoral vote for each congressman and senator. Congressman is allotted by population and every state has two senators, so Rhode Island, which has basically nobody in it, has three electoral votes. California, with 53 representatives and two senators, has 55 electoral votes. The states choose electors and the electors meet in what is called the Electoral College to pick a president. In practice, nearly every state has passed a law that the electors will all vote for the popular vote winner in their state, but as the Supreme Court said in Bush v. Gore, the people of the United States do not have a constitutional right to pick the president. A state could, if it felt like it, select the electors
The Electoral College was established in a compromise between a direct election system, supported by James Wilson, and a system whereby the President would be chosen by congress, supported by Edgridge Gerry, in Article II, Section I of the United States Constitution (Houser, 2). It is a group of ‘electors’ who are nominated or appointed by each party within each state however they choose, who have pledged their loyalty to one candidate. In fact, it is the electors for whom we vote on Election Day. The Electoral College is comprised of 538 members representing the number of the total number of members of the House of Representatives and Senate and three electors representing the District of Columbia. A presidential candidate must have a majority of electoral votes in order to become president.
Beginning at the time the Electoral College was put into place, many debated over its pros and cons. As time has gone on, more and more people have begun to show support for a change in the system (Saad 2013). After George W. Bush defeated AL Gore in the 2000 election by losing popular vote, but winning the college, leading to a “legal recount contest”, many began to question the fairness of the college (Cohen, 2010). This marked the “third time in the nation’s history” the less popular candidate has taken office (Longley). However, the Electoral College should remain in place because it ensures the continuation of a Representative Democracy, maintains a two party system, and because currently no plausible plan has been produced as a means of replacement.
Beginning in America in 1787, the Electoral College was originally created during the Constitutional Convention to help make a fair way for the president to be elected without giving too much power to either the national government or individual states. Over the years, the Electoral College has undergone a few changes in attempt to make it more fair, but there is still much debate about whether or not the Electoral College is the most effective way to elect a president. Some people believe that the Electoral College does an excellent job of creating an equal distribution of votes across all ethnicities and social classes of America. In contrast, others think that the Electoral College does not give an accurate portrayal of the popular opinion of Americans, believing that the Electoral College is no longer necessary for the election process in our society. The issue of whether or not the Electoral College should be a part of our government is important to our society, because it has had a dramatic effect on who is elected as president. Several times in American history a potential presidential candidate has obtained the presidential office only because of the Electoral College, despite the fact that they lost the popular vote. Therefore, the Electoral College should be removed from the government and replaced with an election system based on the popular vote.
Analysis of the Electoral College Many people argue that the Electoral College is an outdated system. After all, many things have changed in the last two centuries. For one, technology is much more advanced now than it was two hundred years ago. With the internet and television, we can now learn everything about a candidate regardless of where the come from in the nation. It is feasible to have direct election of a president because of these improved methods of communication and the evolution of technology in general.
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.
Unknowingly to many Americans, when they go to vote on Election day, they aren 't actually voting for their favorite presidential candidate but, they are actually voting to elect a group of state electors, who will select the president on the behalf of the general public. They have pledged to vote for a specific candidate in the Electoral College, which is the group of representatives that actually elects the President and Vice President. Currently, the Electoral College has 538 members who represent each state, equal to the number of representatives and senators that represent the state in Congress. One exception is Washington D.C. who still has three electoral votes, despite not having any representation in congress. For a candidate to win
A number of Americans fail to realize that when they vote they are not voting for the president and vice-president directly, but for electors who then cast their ballots in the Electoral College. Until the recent battle between Gov. George W. Bush and Vice-president Al Gore for the presidency, this new generation of American voters has never witnessed a controversial election. Historically, there have been problematic elections allowing voters to question this system. The Electoral College is now a process open to criticism and debate, specifically because many do not understand its origin or purpose today. On November 7, 2000, Election Day, I was excited to become an official voter. Considering myself mature, responsible, and finally of age to vote, I had mailed my registration, received my voter’s card, ready to become a participant in one of the most crucial events of the year. I was a faithful supporter of my candidate, crossing my fingers in hopes of victory. That night I watched CNN, eating my dinner and sipping a Diet Coke when the station announced Al Gore had won Florida, which held twenty-five electoral votes. Two hundred and seventy are needed to win, and presidential candidates Bush and Gore had switched leads all night.
Imagine if there was a group of people that all brought in money to buy pizza, but only the person that brought in the most money got to eat the pizza. This is sort of how our electoral college works. Everybody votes but only the votes that get the majority actually count and mean something while the votes for the other person running are basically thrown away. The electoral college should be abolished because it takes away the basic rule of our country that majority vote wins and it makes people feel like their votes mean less because the candidates are only focused on a very minimal amount of states that they need to get to win and finally it gives big cities all of the power.The electoral college was formed in 1788. It was made to give the smaller states equal power. Multiple canidates that have run for president have lost because of this system.