Andrew Jackson, Samuel J. Tilden, Benjamin Harrison, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton all have one thing in common they all won the presidential election despite not becoming the president. The electoral college is a system that has remained unchanged and in place since the founding fathers created it. While this system has remained unchanged the world around us has changed drastically we should abolish the electoral college for the following reasons it is dated, not all votes are equal, a candidate can win popular vote and not election, the ultimate tie, and swing states vs. safe states create low voter turnout. While the U.S. is said to be a democracy it is not the public that decides who the president is as it would be in a true Democracy,
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In the election a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election however, a both candidates however can tie with 269 electoral votes. In this situation the vote goes the House of Representatives, the house has one representative from each state 50 states an even number meaning yes, another tie. In the unlikely chance that this happens the vice president becomes the president . the senate also gets to choose the vice president meaning a Candidate A can be paired with the opposite parties vice president. (BGR.com) While this is very unlikely this is a situation that is possible and quite scary.
While there are many situations in which a the electoral college does not work in our society today there are some positives of the electoral college that would be hard to find in other systems. The electoral college makes the system almost impossible to “hack or rig” being that it is thousands of tiny elections in each county and state, there is never a need for a national recount and the system makes there a clear winner. While these are still positives to keeping the system in place do they outway all the other alternatives and can we find a way to still have those things in place with a more fair …show more content…
We base the election solely off of popular vote the problem with this is that is does not provide a clear winner, it is easy to rig and would often be in need of a national recount. Other alternatives are to redistribute the electoral votes so that there is 1 electoral vote for every 500,000 people this would make it so everyone's vote was equal but would also make is so small states had practically no power. We make all the states like Maine and Nebraska, in those states they divide the votes by what percent each candidate get instead of a winner takes all system for example if a candidate get 40% of the votes the get 40% of that state's electoral votes. We could also add 102 electors (2 per state and D.C.) these would be awarded to the candidate who wins the popular vote. The final alternative is majority preference this system would be a ranking system and is what they do in Australia each voter would rank the candidates from the favorite to their least favorite. The votes would be counted in rounds, round 1 is a normal election of everyone's 1st preference, round 2 the candidates with the least amount of votes are redistributed with those voter's second choice and this repeats until one candidate gets 50% of the votes. (history.com)
In conclusion the electoral college no longer works in this country. When it was put into place it worked well for a time
In the election a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election however, a both candidates however can tie with 269 electoral votes. In this situation the vote goes the House of Representatives, the house has one representative from each state 50 states an even number meaning yes, another tie. In the unlikely chance that this happens the vice president becomes the president . the senate also gets to choose the vice president meaning a Candidate A can be paired with the opposite parties vice president. (BGR.com) While this is very unlikely this is a situation that is possible and quite scary.
While there are many situations in which a the electoral college does not work in our society today there are some positives of the electoral college that would be hard to find in other systems. The electoral college makes the system almost impossible to “hack or rig” being that it is thousands of tiny elections in each county and state, there is never a need for a national recount and the system makes there a clear winner. While these are still positives to keeping the system in place do they outway all the other alternatives and can we find a way to still have those things in place with a more fair …show more content…
We base the election solely off of popular vote the problem with this is that is does not provide a clear winner, it is easy to rig and would often be in need of a national recount. Other alternatives are to redistribute the electoral votes so that there is 1 electoral vote for every 500,000 people this would make it so everyone's vote was equal but would also make is so small states had practically no power. We make all the states like Maine and Nebraska, in those states they divide the votes by what percent each candidate get instead of a winner takes all system for example if a candidate get 40% of the votes the get 40% of that state's electoral votes. We could also add 102 electors (2 per state and D.C.) these would be awarded to the candidate who wins the popular vote. The final alternative is majority preference this system would be a ranking system and is what they do in Australia each voter would rank the candidates from the favorite to their least favorite. The votes would be counted in rounds, round 1 is a normal election of everyone's 1st preference, round 2 the candidates with the least amount of votes are redistributed with those voter's second choice and this repeats until one candidate gets 50% of the votes. (history.com)
In conclusion the electoral college no longer works in this country. When it was put into place it worked well for a time