The Electoral College: The System in Which the Loser Can Win
Contrary to popular belief, when the public goes to the polls every fourth November to vote for the president, they are not actually voting for the president directly. In fact, a candidate could win the election even if only less than 22% of the population votes for them (Grey). Essentially, the vote of the people does not matter; it is the votes cast by the Electoral College that really determine who the next President of the United States will be. The Electoral College is a complex system that was created by the founding fathers and is, needless to say, flawed.
The Electoral College, in simple terms, is a group of 538 people who vote on and decide who our next president will be. …show more content…
Of the 16 students surveyed from September 29th to October 1st, only 37.5% believe the Electoral College should not be abolished. The margin of error for this survey was 24.5 which makes the 95% confidence interval 13.0% to 62.0%. This means that if this survey were conducted 100 times, the approval rate of the electoral college would fall between 13.0% and 62.0% 95 times. The percentage 13.0% is derived from subtracting 24.5, the margin of error, from the approval percentage, 37.5%. Similarly, 62.0% comes from adding the margin of error, 24.5, to the approval percentage which is 37.5%. The difference between the percentages supporting and not supporting getting rid of the Electoral College is not statistically significant. In order to generate a statistically significant result, the sample size would have to be increased greatly. The survey of only 16 students out of 29,000 students is the reason a statistically significant result was not generated. The sample size was much smaller than the student body population thus, the results are not going to necessarily be an accurate representation of the entire UTSA student body. A weakness of this poll is that not all of the students that were surveyed had a full understanding of what the electoral college is. This could cause them to respond randomly and skew results. Another weakness in this poll was the sample of students that were surveyed. Although I was able to survey a graduate student, the rest of my respondents were undergraduates. The age difference could possibly affect the way the students responded. If I were to conduct this poll again, I would take the time to explain what the electoral college is and how it works, in an unbiased manner, to the students I was surveying so that they would be able to provide a more knowledgeable response. I would also use a computer to randomly select the respondents rather than me
Contrary to popular belief, when the public goes to the polls every fourth November to vote for the president, they are not actually voting for the president directly. In fact, a candidate could win the election even if only less than 22% of the population votes for them (Grey). Essentially, the vote of the people does not matter; it is the votes cast by the Electoral College that really determine who the next President of the United States will be. The Electoral College is a complex system that was created by the founding fathers and is, needless to say, flawed.
The Electoral College, in simple terms, is a group of 538 people who vote on and decide who our next president will be. …show more content…
Of the 16 students surveyed from September 29th to October 1st, only 37.5% believe the Electoral College should not be abolished. The margin of error for this survey was 24.5 which makes the 95% confidence interval 13.0% to 62.0%. This means that if this survey were conducted 100 times, the approval rate of the electoral college would fall between 13.0% and 62.0% 95 times. The percentage 13.0% is derived from subtracting 24.5, the margin of error, from the approval percentage, 37.5%. Similarly, 62.0% comes from adding the margin of error, 24.5, to the approval percentage which is 37.5%. The difference between the percentages supporting and not supporting getting rid of the Electoral College is not statistically significant. In order to generate a statistically significant result, the sample size would have to be increased greatly. The survey of only 16 students out of 29,000 students is the reason a statistically significant result was not generated. The sample size was much smaller than the student body population thus, the results are not going to necessarily be an accurate representation of the entire UTSA student body. A weakness of this poll is that not all of the students that were surveyed had a full understanding of what the electoral college is. This could cause them to respond randomly and skew results. Another weakness in this poll was the sample of students that were surveyed. Although I was able to survey a graduate student, the rest of my respondents were undergraduates. The age difference could possibly affect the way the students responded. If I were to conduct this poll again, I would take the time to explain what the electoral college is and how it works, in an unbiased manner, to the students I was surveying so that they would be able to provide a more knowledgeable response. I would also use a computer to randomly select the respondents rather than me