Title: The Electoral College is Failing and should be Abolished
Every four years, Americans elect a president and vice-president. Voters are not given the rights to vote directly for the presidential candidates.They actually vote for an elector in their respective state, who had pledged to cast a ballot on voters’ behalf in the election that actually chooses the president. This voting system is called the Electoral College.
In the Electoral College system, different In states are allotted with different number of electors. In each state, the number of electors is equal to the number of House of Representations, plus 2 more representing two state senators. Effectively, a grand total of 538 electors sums up 435 members of the House of Representatives, …show more content…
This means despite the outcome of a state’s popular vote, the state’s electors are ultimately free to vote whoever they please, with no legal repercussions. There have been 7 incidents in history. Recently in 1988, when a Democrat Elector in West Virginia cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president instead of what he pledged. He made the move, for making a statement. Though, these faithless electors have not changed the election outcome once, but why should these electors be given the power without repercussion? Election is a serious business. No individual should be given any right to manipulate in election.
Electoral College system also has drawback of swing states. Swing states has no single candidate or party that has overwhelming voters support for securing that state's Electoral College votes. Swing states are targeted by political parties for gaining electoral votes. Presidential candidates may focus on these states in their campaigns. And later policies could have been made in favor in these swing states. Elected President could have focused in these states to secure the second …show more content…
This is unnecessarily complicated and needless expensive process. Electoral College depresses voters’ turnout. Voters are not being encouraged to vote, if the pre-election poll is one sided. Voters have no incentive to go visit the election box, knowing their state’ electoral vote is secured. And most importantly, Electoral College fails to reflect the nation’s popular vote accurately. 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. There should not be any difference in votes between states. This effectively mean majority win, with popular vote. This gives no chance to any ambiguity interpretation of election result. There is only one total number of votes to count. The country should not be dragged into unnecessary debates and legal fights, like what happened earlier. It is strongly not desired to see the country being divided again from another disputed election, before changes will be
Every four years, Americans elect a president and vice-president. Voters are not given the rights to vote directly for the presidential candidates.They actually vote for an elector in their respective state, who had pledged to cast a ballot on voters’ behalf in the election that actually chooses the president. This voting system is called the Electoral College.
In the Electoral College system, different In states are allotted with different number of electors. In each state, the number of electors is equal to the number of House of Representations, plus 2 more representing two state senators. Effectively, a grand total of 538 electors sums up 435 members of the House of Representatives, …show more content…
This means despite the outcome of a state’s popular vote, the state’s electors are ultimately free to vote whoever they please, with no legal repercussions. There have been 7 incidents in history. Recently in 1988, when a Democrat Elector in West Virginia cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president instead of what he pledged. He made the move, for making a statement. Though, these faithless electors have not changed the election outcome once, but why should these electors be given the power without repercussion? Election is a serious business. No individual should be given any right to manipulate in election.
Electoral College system also has drawback of swing states. Swing states has no single candidate or party that has overwhelming voters support for securing that state's Electoral College votes. Swing states are targeted by political parties for gaining electoral votes. Presidential candidates may focus on these states in their campaigns. And later policies could have been made in favor in these swing states. Elected President could have focused in these states to secure the second …show more content…
This is unnecessarily complicated and needless expensive process. Electoral College depresses voters’ turnout. Voters are not being encouraged to vote, if the pre-election poll is one sided. Voters have no incentive to go visit the election box, knowing their state’ electoral vote is secured. And most importantly, Electoral College fails to reflect the nation’s popular vote accurately. 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. There should not be any difference in votes between states. This effectively mean majority win, with popular vote. This gives no chance to any ambiguity interpretation of election result. There is only one total number of votes to count. The country should not be dragged into unnecessary debates and legal fights, like what happened earlier. It is strongly not desired to see the country being divided again from another disputed election, before changes will be