The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

Improved Essays
The Electoral College has been a way to elect our president for over 200 years. However, the times have changed, and the need to reform this process has come upon us. It does not represent the voice of the people. It creates an imbalance of power between states, and often creates confusion in our nation. The electoral college does more harm than good.
The Electoral College gives votes to states based on the amount of U.S Representatives and senators that that specific state has. Thus, certain states have more votes than others, which lessens the importance of states with a smaller population, like Hawaii or Rhode Island. Furthermore, certain states also have a history of choosing a certain political side. For example, California is known to be a predominantly democratic state, since most of the electors end up voting for the democratic party. As a result, there are only 10~15 states in which candidates pay attention to and campaign in. The Electoral College gives importance to only a few
…show more content…
However, the times have changed, and technology allows people to research candidates and make decisions for themselves. Citizens now have the resources that they need to make decisions that they feel is good for the country, making the need for the electoral college outdated.
As a result of the electoral college, citizens aren’t actually voting for their president. In reality, people are actually voting for an elector who has pledged their support towards a certain candidate. This means that the vote of over 300 million people is being represented by only 538 electors. Furthermore, there is the risk of a faithless elector. A faithless elector is an elector who pledges their support for one candidate, but votes for a different candidate. This means that while voting, there is a chance that you are actually voting for someone

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “The Electoral College was necessary when communications were poor, literacy was low, and voters lacked information about out-of-state figures, which is clearly no longer the case.” is what Gene Green once stated. Over the few past elections it has seems as if the Electoral College is being used more, and more to win elections. I have now grown to oppose the Electoral College, and think that it is time that we no longer use It. Considering that the Electoral College was created in the first place to prevent the newly founded American from getting manipulated, by electing tyrants, and also that the Electoral College was designed so that each would have equal representation based on population. However in some cases it does not work because no…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Did you know that the votes you cast in presidential elections are not for candidates but are for a slate of electors pledged to the candidates of your choice? These electors, along with the electors chosen in all the other states, really elect the president and vice president. Collectively referred to as the Electoral College, electors are frequently not listed on the ballot and are almost always unknown to most voters. In other words, America’s voters do not directly elect the two people who hold the highest offices in the land. Article II, section 1 of the Constitution introduces election by electors: Clause 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.…

    • 145 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In fact, the author of These 3 Common Arguments for Preserving the Electoral College Are Wrong reveals that “presidential candidates don’t campaign in rural areas no matter what system is used,” since there are few votes to be gained in those places (Time Magazine paragraph 4). According to this, the Electoral College does not provide citizens in smaller states an advantage in influencing the vote, proving this argument as incorrect.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In a presidential election, voters cast ballots for the candidate they prefer, though these votes only select their state’s electors. Electors, who are slated to vote for the popular-elected candidate, then vote in a second election to select the actual president. An electoral college system adds a layer of separation between the popular majority and the power of the federal government’s executive branch, while also giving the ability to misrepresent the popular vote. The electoral college is not democratic because the way of calculating the number of electors over represents the population in small states.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A few years after the United States was founded, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the nation would be governed. They decided that they needed a leader to govern the nation. Based on experiences, the delegates knew that they needed find someone who was not a tyrant and did not abuse their power. The delegates did not believe that the president should be chosen by popular vote. They did not contemplate that voters would be perspicacious enough to make a worthy choice in choosing the president.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In a presidential race, the candidate with the highest popular vote can lose to a candidate with the lower popular vote if the candidate with the lower popular vote has more electoral votes. Originally, the electoral college was created to compromise the people's vote with congress’ vote. Some people argue that the electoral college should be changed or abolished while others think that there is nothing wrong with it. The electoral college needs to be changed because one party should not be able to change the possible president and the House of Representatives should not either, but there does need to be a secure way to elect a president.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nevertheless, there are several swing states that vary their opinion on each candidate every…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Electoral College was designed so that the candidates running for President would need to campaign and appeal to all of the voters of our nation and not just a select few. It allows for even smaller states that a national candidate might never visit to require the candidate to show up and ask for votes. The every state has a right to hear and see the candidate allows the candidates to focus on issues that affect everyone around the country and not just one section of the nation. While the winner takes all fashion of issuing votes with the electoral college may be representative of the citizens of that state, it leaves out states that are not consider “swing” states for their issues being included. Candidates tend to campaign hard in states considered “swing” states and then ignore the states that they believe they have already won.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the U.S. Election Atlas. “Given all these drawback, the electoral college is not an effective way of collecting the collective opinion of voters in choosing a presidential candidate”. Electoral College is obsolete and compromised approach, this unjust system should be abolished. The ideal voting method should have equal right among all voters.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Electoral College Dbq

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It became that a democratic election determines each state’s vote for president in the Electoral College. The incorporation of the Electoral College means that a candidate cannot focus all of their resources and time on the larger states (Reed 1). It forces the candidates to appeal to the entire population in order to secure each Electoral…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If you are Catholic or you are Jew you are going to have different views, black or white, etc. There are a lot of factors that affect people's votes and without the electoral college populated areas will more than likely win the…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When most people think about voting, they usually think you show up to the poll, cast your vote, then immediately go towards the candidate. Instead, the process is very different and includes something called the Electoral College. Not an actual college, but a way the states can discuss with each other to cast the vote. Personally, I don’t agree with the Electoral College being a part of the United States voting system, as the system seems unfair and should be changed for the better; this is causing people to not cast in their votes at all. Take the scenario of, being with a group full of people, and having to decide whether you want a class pet of a snake or guinea pig.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. Two hundred seventy votes are needed in order for a president to be elected. Therefore the election process in the United States is not fair. The popular vote should determine who becomes president and not the…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    We as a nation, we should be able to decide the president and vice-president for our country. The Electoral College is a way for the Government to control the way politics are decided. People should decide the president, because people know the truth. The electoral college takes away our right to vote, and it is sound a little bit weird but it is the reality, some of the reason is because most of the time the popular vote it does not count in the reality, the smaller states favored the Electoral college because of the number of electors that they have and also, in the reality our votes do not count.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every four years, citizens of the United States of America choose their next president based off a unique system known as the electoral college. The way that this system works is interesting and is confused easily in the general public. In early November, when citizens go to the polls, they are not voting for the president directly, rather they are voting for their individual states to cast its electoral votes towards a certain presidential candidate. In the forty-eight of the fifty states where voting takes place, all the electoral votes go to the presidential candidate who wins the majority in their state. No matter how large or small the majority is, the presidential candidate gets all the votes.…

    • 1924 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays