No Electoral College Essay, Research Paper

In with the Popular Vote, out with the Electoral College

The recent Presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush has sparked a controversial fire among American citizens. Should we maintain the Electoral College, or is it clip to acquire rid of it and travel by the Nation s Popular Vote? The Electoral College worked when it was foremost created, but jobs have been coming up and make up one’s minding the President would be more efficient, and less problem-laden if Americans awarded the Presidency to the victor of the popular ballot. America, as a county, has grown and evolved, and our vote systems should follow suit.

The Electoral College didn T merely spring up all of a sudden. Many versions were tried and rejected. The first design appointed two senators from each province. In order to avoid voting for their favourite boy the senators had to take two campaigners that did non stand for their place province. The campaigner with most ballots became President, and the runner-up became Vice President. This design merely lasted for four elections. The 2nd design differed merely somewhat. Alternatively of projecting two ballots for president, voters cast one for President, and one for Vice President. The leaders in each of the classs were elected.

The Electoral College today is different in more ways than one. Not merely are our Senators chosen to stand for their several province, but electors besides appoint other voters harmonizing to each province s population. The larger the population, the more electoral votes a province receives. In old designs citizens were non welcome to vote because there was no manner to acquire adequate information on a campaigner, therefore citizens would stop up voting for their province s campaigners, instead than the issues. Today citizens ballot and the appointed voters, the two senators and the appropriate figure of representatives, cast the province s electoral ballots harmonizing to the bulk, which is decided by the popular ballot. Although Maine and Nebraska divide their electoral ballots up otherwise from the remainder of the United States. In both provinces each one of the voters are divided among each congressional territories. The stand foring voter in his territory casts his ballot harmonizing to the territory s bulk, and the overall victor of the province is awarded two excess ballots. Voters meet one month after public election to project their electoral ballot. In order to win the election a campaigner must hold 270 of the 538 electoral ballots.

The popular ballot is the entire figure of ballots that a Presidential Candidate gets from every voting American citizen. The popular ballot besides encourages the voters of the Electoral College on how to project their ballot for the President, even though the voter does non hold to vote harmonizing to the province s bulk. The popular ballot does non make up one’s mind the election, the 538 members of the Electoral College decide.

Many people agree that the Electoral College is outdated and that a new vote system is needed. George C. Edwards, manager of Presidential Studies at Texas A & A ; M, supports the thought of an election based on popular ballot. In the article, School of Hard Knocks Edwards is quoted stating, There s no justification for the Electoral College ( 52 ) . He backs this up by adverting how much clip is spent implementing the one individual, one ballot rule. The With the Electoral College electors are non every bit represented. Richard Dunham explains why the electors are non reasonably represented by giving an illustration:

California has 54 electoral ballots, and the 22 smallest provinces combined have good over 54 electoral ballots, but the population International Relations and Security Network T every bit big as

California s.

This means every one individual s ballot in the smaller populated provinces are more of import than another individual s ballot in a much larger populated province. An Alaskan elector has a louder voice in the determination of who the electoral ballot will travel to, than a Californian has with their ballots.

Hillary Clinton wants to extinguish the Electoral College, and harmonizing to a recent canvass, over 50 % of the respondents agreed in making off with the Electoral College. In past elections there has been instances of a president winning the Electoral Vote but non the popular ballot. Harmonizing to the chart in the article School of difficult knocks there has been more than one juncture when the electoral ballot has overruled the popular ballot. In 1876 Rutherford Hayes round James Tilden by one electoral ballot, but Tilden had over 200,000 more ballots back uping him. In a lupus erythematosuss

s dramatic lead William Henry Harrison bested Grover Cleveland by 65 electoral ballots, but lost the popular ballot by 90,596 ballots.

Besides non stand foring electors reasonably, the electoral college is besides unjust to the 3rd party campaigners running for president. Campaigners like Ralph Nader have no opportunity of

winning an election because the popular ballot for each province, excepting Maine and Nebraska, is a victor take all state of affairs. Even if Nader had gotten a batch of the ballots, it wouldn t do a difference because there would be no manner that he would acquire more than Al Gore or George W. Bush for the electoral ballot. With a popular ballot election system third-party campaigners would be better represented and have more of a opportunity of winning the election.

Electing a president by popular ballot entirely does hold a few reverses. If the presidential term was elected by popular ballot, the opportunities of campaigners passing any clip in sparsely populated provinces like Wyoming and Alaska would be really slender. Most of the candidacy would be focused on the more populated provinces like New York and California. The Electoral College was partly created to assist maintain the less populated provinces on the run trail. Senior analyst from CNN, Jeff Greenfield supports the Electoral College by indicating out the drawbacks of a popular ballot based election. If it were decided by popular ballot campaigners would put the United States out into classs, dwelling of ages, and different involvements. The campaigners would so work on deriving ballots from the more populated parts by remaking their run address into what they believe the people of that geographical class want to hear ( 66 ) .

Deciding the presidential term by popular ballot entirely could stir up problem if the polls are close. Jeff Greenfield besides points out that America could confront a national recount if the election was well near ( 66 ) . A national recount could be more clip devouring than the Electoral College of all time was, particularly if the recount was recommended to be redone by manus. Telling in Dade County, Florida seems like a fuss, but the idea of telling and full states ballot is mind boggling.

Smoothing out the balls caused by voting for the following President by popular ballot wouldn t be as clip devouring or hard as repairing the jobs with the Electoral College. There could be a jurisprudence necessitating campaigners to see all of the provinces, alternatively of concentrating merely on well populated countries. By necessitating this, campaigners would be distributing out across the state more than they are now with no ordinances from the Electoral College. To avoid big recounts done by manus, a standardised national ballot should be put into action along with a standard ballot counter. The Electoral College has been around for over 200 old ages, and it still has jobs which have non been fixed. Certain jobs have tried to be worked out with small or no success.

Historian Arthur Schlesinger came up with his ain solution to guarantee the victor of the popular ballot besides wins the Electoral College ballot. Award a fillip of 102 electoral ballots, two for each province and the District of Columbia to the popular ballot victor ( 65 ) . By presenting the campaigner who wins the popular ballot an excess 102 votes the citizens vote for president would do a difference. If this program were put into action more Americans would vote because the popular ballot victor would doubtless go the following President of the United States.

Most Americans want a vote system that they feel is the citizens electing the following President, non a commission of 538 House members. One of the grounds that we had an Electoral College was because there was no manner to keep a national election, and the authorities didn T want citizens voting for their favourite boies. We now have ways of keeping national elections, doing another the statement for the Electoral College become disused. Changing the vote system by doing the popular ballot dominant against the Electoral College, Americans will hold less to kick about because it will be a true instance of bulk regulations.

Dunham, Richard S. Why the Electoral College Lives on. Business Week 20 Nov. 2000: 41.

Greenfield, Jeff. The Hidden Beauty of the System. Time 20 Nov. 2000: 66.

Schlesinger, Arthur. It s a Mess, But We ve Been Through it Before Time 20 Nov. 2000: 64.

Wildavsky, Ben. School of Hard Knocks. The Electoral College: An mistiming or defender of little provinces? U.S. News & A ; World Report 20 Nov. 2000: 52