The Electoral College

A detailed Summary of The Electoral College

The United States has a complicated voting system that most citizens do not understand. The Electoral College has been in place for two hundred years, and is beginning to show its age. The process places the vote for the president in the hands of electors. The State's votes, when counted, then determine which candidate receives the absolute majority, one over a half, and then receives that State's entire Electoral College votes. A third political party has no chance of dominating the political system. A candidate could win without the majority popular vote of the nation. It also has a tendency to depress voter turnout, since most people feel it does not accurately portray the nation's choice. Citizens do not understand how the system works and why it needs to be updated. A need for a new political system is arising out of the old Electoral College.

With the present day system there is a chance of electing a minority president, one who does not have the absolute majority popular vote. For instance, if a third party drew enough votes from the top two so that no candidates received 50% of the national total popular vote, then a president would be nominated that received less than half of the natio

In conclusion, it is plain to see that the Electoral College is a system that is complicated and controversial. The United States has used it for over two hundred years, and more than willing to continue to use it. The question is whether it will always work the way the Founding Fathers intended it to. The future cannot be predicted, so why should a system be relied on to continue to work? Many say, "That if it isn't broken why fix it?" Fixing the Electoral College may not be the answer, but preparing for the day it does not work may be the answer. New ideas need to be generated. The United States is a different place from its birth, for that reason preparation for the downfall of the Electoral College should be looked at rather than remaining with what everyone is comfortable with.

The system in place has shown links to depressing voter turnout. Each state is entitled to the same number of Electoral votes regardless of its voter turn out. Therefore, the States have no incentive to encourage voters to participate (Clarke, www). This, in turn, allows a minority of the population to determine the president. According to Wikman, only 49% of the nation votes, meaning the outcome of an election, after the Electoral College, theoretically could represent only 12% of the nation. People feel that their vote does not count. According to these percentages, it is possible to see that people are not voting; and for those who do, only a small percentage have put a candidate into the White House. The reasoning comes from the fact that a candidate could receive 49% of a State's popular vote and would have nothing to show for it in the Electoral College since the candidate has to receive the absolute majority (Reichley, 83). By changing the system, so that the Electoral votes were divided in a state, it would mean that in a worse case scenario, a president could be elected with a minimum of 42% of the popular vote of the entire nation (Wikman, www). This is a lot better compared to only 12%. This wou

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Approximate Word count = 1360
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics