The Electoral College originated from the passage of the Constitution. Article 2 of the Constitution lays out the executive branch of the US government, and this is where the language creating the Electoral College is found. It says that “Each state shall appoint a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress” (U.S. Const. Art. II). This process designated 535 electors for the nation. The number of electors was later changed to 538 following the passage of the 23rd Amendment, which granted Washington D.C. three electoral votes. The initial rationale for creating the Electoral college was to create a system that could represent a wide variety of beliefs and
…show more content…
Each campaign only has so much money to use in attempting to gain the most number of electoral votes to win the election. Candidates will focus their money, advertising, and in-person visits to the areas which can give them the biggest advantage in the electoral vote, which most often are swing states. In the 2012 election race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, Obama spent 56% of his total advertising budget on 10 media markets, while money spent 53% of his advertising budget on his top 10 media markets (Sides 2015, 257). This heavy concentration of funds shows how important certain markets are to candidates. Two major political parties within the United States also heavily benefit from the Electoral College system. The electoral system discourages third party candidates because it forces candidates to get a majority of votes within each state. This is a nearly insurmountable feat for parties that are not widely known or supported. By discouraging third parties, the significance of the two party system is underlined and focuses electoral races to be a competition between the two candidates from each major …show more content…
While this process is not as democratic as a direct popular vote would be, it is more characteristic of a federal republic which is the US political system. Even though there have been two recent elections in which the electoral vote did not match the popular, this has been an overall rare occurrence in the history of the nation. Critics of the Electoral College also point to the importance of battleground states in elections, these states are often representative of America as a whole (Goux and Hopkins 2008). Adjustments to the electoral college system may not fix many of the problems it currently faces but instead may create campaigns that are more expensive and more difficult than they already are. The main barrier to Electoral College reform lies in the fact that the Electoral College comes from the Constitution, and changes to it would require a Constitutional Amendment. In a day and age where it is difficult for the US Congress to pass a budget, it would be near impossible for the legislature to draft a pass an amendment changing this system. While the Electoral College process isn’t perfect, it creates a system that works to effectively represent the varied interests of the diverse
Each campaign only has so much money to use in attempting to gain the most number of electoral votes to win the election. Candidates will focus their money, advertising, and in-person visits to the areas which can give them the biggest advantage in the electoral vote, which most often are swing states. In the 2012 election race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, Obama spent 56% of his total advertising budget on 10 media markets, while money spent 53% of his advertising budget on his top 10 media markets (Sides 2015, 257). This heavy concentration of funds shows how important certain markets are to candidates. Two major political parties within the United States also heavily benefit from the Electoral College system. The electoral system discourages third party candidates because it forces candidates to get a majority of votes within each state. This is a nearly insurmountable feat for parties that are not widely known or supported. By discouraging third parties, the significance of the two party system is underlined and focuses electoral races to be a competition between the two candidates from each major …show more content…
While this process is not as democratic as a direct popular vote would be, it is more characteristic of a federal republic which is the US political system. Even though there have been two recent elections in which the electoral vote did not match the popular, this has been an overall rare occurrence in the history of the nation. Critics of the Electoral College also point to the importance of battleground states in elections, these states are often representative of America as a whole (Goux and Hopkins 2008). Adjustments to the electoral college system may not fix many of the problems it currently faces but instead may create campaigns that are more expensive and more difficult than they already are. The main barrier to Electoral College reform lies in the fact that the Electoral College comes from the Constitution, and changes to it would require a Constitutional Amendment. In a day and age where it is difficult for the US Congress to pass a budget, it would be near impossible for the legislature to draft a pass an amendment changing this system. While the Electoral College process isn’t perfect, it creates a system that works to effectively represent the varied interests of the diverse