Electoral college pros and cons essay

Elections - santa monica, 2014 - santa monica city council, school board and college board elections (archived). Football playoffs - should college football replace the bowl championship series (bcs) with a playoff system? Electoral college: top 3 pros and debate over the continued use of the electoral college resurfaced during the 2016 presidential election, when donald trump lost the general election to hillary clinton by over 2. Electoral college was established in 1788 by article ii of the us constitution, which also established the executive branch of the us government, and was revised by the twelfth amendment (ratified june 15, 1804), the fourteenth amendment (ratified july 1868), and the twenty-third amendment (ratified mar. Because the procedure for electing the president is part of the constitution, a constitutional amendment (which requires two-thirds approval in both houses of congress plus approval by 38 states) would be required to abolish the electoral college. Founding fathers enshrined the electoral college in the us constitution because they thought it was the best method to choose the president. 7] [8] [9] according to alexander hamilton, the electoral college is if "not perfect, it is at least excellent," because it ensured "that the office of president will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Also, while alexander hamilton in 1788 saw the electors as being "free from any sinister bias," members of the electoral college are now selected by the political parties and they are expected to vote along party lines regardless of their own opinions about the candidates. 7] [4] [16] just as several voting laws that limited direct democracy in the constitution have been modified or discarded throughout history, so should the electoral college. As a result of constitutional amendments, women and former slaves were given the right to vote, and senators, once appointed by state legislatures, are now elected directly by popular vote. 15] the vice presidency was once awarded to the runner up in electoral votes, but the procedure was changed over time to reflect the reality of elections. Electoral college ensures that all parts of the country are involved in selecting the president of the united states. To win the election, presidential candidates need electoral votes from multiple regions and therefore they build campaign platforms with a national focus, meaning that the winner will actually be serving the needs of the entire country.

Without the electoral college, groups such as iowa farmers and ohio factory workers would be ignored in favor of pandering to metropolitan areas with higher population densities, leaving rural areas and small towns marginalized. Electoral college gives too much power to "swing states" and allows the presidential election to be decided by a handful of states. The two main political parties can count on winning the electoral votes in certain states, such as california for the democratic party and indiana for the republican party, without worrying about the actual popular vote totals. Because of the electoral college, presidential candidates only need to pay attention to a limited number of states that can swing one way or the other. Of those visits, nearly two-thirds took place in the four battlegrounds with the most electoral votes — florida, pennsylvania, ohio, and north carolina. 11] this happened with president nixon in 1968 and president clinton in 1992, when both men won the most electoral votes while receiving just 43% of the popular vote. 11] the existence of the electoral college precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. The electoral process can also create a larger mandate to give the president more credibility; for example, president obama received 51. 14] in 227 years, the winner of the popular vote has lost the electoral vote only five times. In 2016, hillary clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. Founding fathers created the electoral college as a compromise between electing the president via a vote in congress only or via a popular vote only. The electoral college comprises 538 electors; each state is allowed one elector for each representative and senator (dc is allowed 3 electors as established by the twenty-third amendment). Most states use the "winner-take-all" method, in which all electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the popular vote in that state.

For a candidate to win the presidency, he or she must win at least 270 electoral college votes. Suite monica, ca us: this is what ear ringing does to your and cons of electoral ay, 02 jul 2015 11:43 ways to share... United states does not elect its presidents by a popular vote, but instead uses an electoral college process to select its leader, which may not be the politicians a majority of voters most recent example occurred in 2000 when al gore won the popular vote, but george w. Bush earned more electoral votes, giving him the founding fathers set up the electoral college originally to retain a representative form of government. These electors typically vote for the candidate for which their state popularly us movements have aimed to go from an electoral college to a popular election, but the system are some of the pros and cons of the electoral college. It protects minority electoral college preserves the voice of states with lower populations and more rural areas, occupy theory noted. Especially in contemporary times, urban areas tend to be more populated, but the electoral college saves the interests of farmers and those found in less bustling locations. It directs more power to the are given the power to select the delegates to the electoral college, allowing them to participate in the selection of a president. The person a majority of americans favor may not n smaller states have a larger percentage of electoral college votes than their percentage of population of the united states. This is because the minimum number of electoral college votes for a state is three. Popular vote is a simple majority, but the electoral college consists of redistributing votes every 10 years because of population changes and electing delegates. California’s 55 electoral college votes mean there are 705,454 people per vote while there are only 194,717 people for each of wyoming’s three electoral votes, according the green i registered to vote? United states does not elect its presidents by a popular vote, but instead uses an electoral college process to select its leader, which may not be the politicians a majority of voters ral college, voting ay, 02 jul 2015 11:43 ay, 02 jul 2015 11:43 newsmax y: we never share your us on us on google x, moneynews, newsmax health, and independent.

Kimberling, deputy director fec national clearinghouse on election pro's and con's of the electoral college have, in its 200 year history, been a number of critics and proposed reforms to ral college system - most of them trying to eliminate it. But there are also ers of the electoral college who, though perhaps less vocal than its critics, powerful arguments in its nts against the electoral who object to the electoral college system and favor a direct popular election president generally do so on four grounds:The possibility of electing a risk of so-called "faithless". Possible role of the electoral college sing voter turnout, failure to accurately reflect the nts of the electoral college bed by the possibility of electing a minority president (one without te majority of popular votes). Nor is this concern entirely unfounded since three ways in which that could way in which a minority president elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or ential candidates split the electoral votes among them such that no one obtained ary majority. Should that happen today, there are two tions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support r (before the meeting of the electors) or else, absent an absolute majority in ral college, the u. Second way in which a minority take office is if, as in 1888, one candidate's popular support were trated in a few states while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead states to win the needed majority of the electoral college. That is to say, when the electoral vote outcome is so to be for one candidate or the other, an occasional elector casts a vote for al favorite knowing full well that it will not make a difference in the , if the prospect of a faithless elector is so fearsome as to warrant tutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing ral college merely by eliminating the individual electors in favor of a atical process (since the individual electors are no longer essential to nts of the electoral college r concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout. Nt is that, since each state is entitled to the same number of electoral less of its voter turnout, there is no incentive in the states to encourage ipation. Representatives,State governors, state legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these ives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the y, some opponents of the e point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect al popular will in at least two , the distribution of electoral votes college tends to over-represent people in rural states. The result is 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven us jurisdiction of alaska, delaware, the district of columbia, north dakota, , vermont, and wyoming carried the same voting strength in the electoral college (ral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the state of florida. Second way in which the electoral to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from -take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most in the state wins all the electoral votes of that state. One effect of ism is to make it extremely difficult for third party or independent candidates make much of a showing in the electoral college. If, for example, a third party ndent candidate were to win the support of even as many as 25% of the wide, he might still end up with no electoral college votes at all unless he won ity of votes in at least one state.

By thus failing to accurately reflect al popular will, the argument goes, the electoral college reinforces a two , discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to s available to the response to these arguments, proponents electoral college point out that is was never intended to reflect the national . As for the first issue, that the electoral college over-represents tions, proponents respond that the united state senate - with two seats per less of its population - over-represents rural populations far more since there have been no serious proposals to abolish the united states senate grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of ral college? But so, as ution, does the united states for the second issue of the e's role in reinforcing a two party system, proponents, as we shall see, find be a positive nts for the electoral ents of the electoral college system normally defend it on the philosophical butes to the cohesiveness of the requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected es the status of minority interests,Contributes to the political stability of by encouraging a two-party system, ins a federal system of government izing the strong regional interests ies which have played so great a role in american history, proponents argue that ral college system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country be requiring bution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism,They point out, president would be selected either through the domination of one over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over ones. Indeed, it is principally because of the electoral college that es are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a region other own. Indeed, they point out that the electoral college system is designed in a rational series of defaults: if, in the first instance, a candidate receives ntial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to electoral votes to be elected president; in the event that the popular vote ely close, then the election defaults to that candidate with the best popular votes (as evidenced by obtaining the absolute majority of electoral votes); event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of , then the choice of president defaults to the states in the u. One way or another, then, the winning candidate must demonstrate both ient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that ents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by participation, the electoral college actually enhances the status of . This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a state may difference between winning all of that state's electoral votes or none of that state'ral votes. And since ethnic minority groups in the united states happen trate in those state with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance ential candidates well out of proportion to their number. There can be no doubt that the electoral college has encouraged to maintain a two party system in the united states. House of representatives, they would still have a majority of over half the state delegations in order to elect their candidate - that case, they would hardly be considered a minor addition to protecting the presidency from impassioned but transitory third nts, the practical effect of the electoral college (along with the ct system of representation in the congress) is to virtually force third nts into one of the two major political parties. The electoral , in contrast, encourages political parties to coalesce divergent interests into of coherent alternatives. Such an organization of social conflict and contributes to the political stability of the y, its proponents argue quite correctly that the electoral college maintains l system of government and representation. And the electoral college was designed ent each state's choice for the presidency (with the number of each state'ral votes being the number of its senators plus the number of its representatives).

Abolish the electoral college in favor of a nationwide popular election for strike at the very heart of the federal structure laid out in our constitution lead to the nationalization of our central government - to the detriment of , if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the eration, should we not then abolish the senate which represents states regardless tion? Nor should we tamper with the careful balance of power between al and state governments which the founding fathers intended and which is the electoral college. To do so would fundamentally alter the nature of our might well bring about consequences that even the reformers would come to electoral college has performed its function for over 200 years (and in over ential elections) by ensuring that the president of the united states has ient popular support to govern and that his popular support is buted throughout the country to enable him to govern gh there were a few anomalies in its early history, none have occurred in the y. Proposals to abolish the electoral college, though frequently put forward, largely because the alternatives to it appear more problematic than is the fact that the electoral college was originally designed to solve one set of today serves to solve an entirely different set of problems is a tribute to the the founding william c. Kimberling,Fec national clearinghouse on election views expressed here those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the on commission or any division thereof or the jackson county board on graphy on the electoral , walter (ed. Insurance life insurance tax t loan t loan refinance al loan ment allocation l gains tax brokerage on the profile icon to edit your financial pros and cons of the electoral much house can i afford? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the electoral out our budget 1: it keeps smaller states relevant in u. It would mean candidates would have little reason to consider, say, the state of farming in iowa or the opiate crisis in new reason that some analysts support the electoral college is that it encourages candidates to pay attention to small states and not just get out the vote in big, populous states and cities. The electoral college gives small states more weight in the political process than their population would otherwise d article: the pros and cons of raising the minimum 2: it provides a clean, widely accepted ending to the election (most of the time). The fact that certain states and their electoral votes are safely in the column of one party or the other makes it easier (and cheaper) for candidates to campaign successfully. Some argue that getting rid of the electoral college could make american presidential elections even more expensive than they already are, exacerbating what some see as america’s campaign finance or con: it keeps the two-party system one is either a pro or a con, depending on your point of view. So, depending on where you stand with regard to the two-party system, you’ll probably have corresponding feelings about the electoral 1: it can make people feel like their votes don’t the electoral college, it’s true that not every vote matters. Voter participation rates are already quite low, and some argue that eliminating the electoral college would be an easy way to raise them and to boost americans’ engagement in the political d article: the economics of campaign 2: it gives too much power to swing you follow u.

If you don’t live in a swing state like pennsylvania, florida, ohio, michigan, wisconsin, etc. The electoral college means that swing states – which aren’t necessarily the most representative of the country as a whole – get most of the even within swing states, certain counties are more competitive than others and voters in those counties are courted particularly hard. If that offends your sense of fairness and you think that candidates should fight for the votes of all americans, you may oppose the electoral 3: it can clash with the popular er 2000? When al gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college and therefore the presidency? The potential for the electoral college to conflict with the result of the popular vote is one of the most commonly cited arguments against the electoral 4: there’s the possibility of “rogue electors”. While that wouldn’t eliminate the electoral college, it would change the winner-take-all nature of our system and the way candidates think about state campaigns. Foremost pros and cons of the green list of pros and cons 10 far-reaching pros and cons of the electoral the 2012 elections in the united states, the term “electoral college” made headlines. If you haven’t heard or don’t know much about it yet, as a voter and an american citizen, it is important to know what it is and how it affects your term electoral college refers to a process, not a place or school. It involves the selection of electors, voting for the president and vice-president of the us and counting of the electoral votes by congress. To elect the president, it is required to reach 270 electoral are 538 voters who will cast votes and decide who the president and vice-president of the us will be. In every state, whichever candidate wins the majority of votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes. But nebraska and maine are exempted to this rule – the top candidate in both states gets two electoral votes (for the two senators) whereas the remaining electoral votes will be allocated congressional district by congressional the election, every state’s governor will prepare a “certificate of ascertainment”, a list of all the candidates who ran for president as well as names of their respective electors. Once everything is recorded, the certificate of ascertainment will then be sent to congress and the national archives as this is a part of the official records of every presidential all that information, you might be wondering what makes the electoral advantageous and what could its disadvantages to society of advantages of the electoral college.

It protects the interests of the electoral college preserves the voice of minority groups, especially states with lower populations and more rural areas. Additionally, with the electoral college, states that are not considered competitive and are basically ignored by candidates will have a voice. It gives the winning candidate the majority of the the 1992 polls, bill clinton only got around 42 percent of the vote, but with ross perot’s influence, he won the majority of the electoral college. But with the electoral college, this can be avoided because recounting can be done on one state. The electoral college is a state-by-state winner-take-all system, which ensures that any dispute in the counting would be an isolated case in particular states. It gives all candidates a chance for considerable if a candidate has a lower percentage of popular vote, he can still win in the electoral college. As a result, there is great consensus impression, which is a requirement for subsequent of disadvantages of the electoral college. It isolates people from the rest of the is because the popular vote isn’t considered valid. It could produce a president whom the majority of americans do not exactly is because the principle of the electoral college undermines the popular vote. Smaller states will have a larger percentage of electoral vote because the minimum number of electoral college votes for every state is three. It is complicated and discourages people from t electoral college, getting the popular vote simply means a win. This discourage people from participating in the is important to know the advantages and disadvantages of the electoral college system to be able to weigh in on all options. This is because people have various insights and thus, different in all, adapting the electoral college has benefited the country in more ways than one.

For one, it has allowed the president of the united states to have both popular support and electoral votes to govern effectively. Highly recommend that you take a look at this before you go, "how to get an a+ on every essay and research paper that you write.