What is the best way to decide who becomes president? When building this country and designing the Constitution, the founding fathers created the electoral college. The electoral college is a group of electors chosen by a state to carry that state’s vote for president to Congress. It was created to make a compromise between the options for election by the popular vote of the general public and election based on Congress’s vote (“What is the Electoral College?” 1-2), but since then many states have changed its choices and forms of voting in order to please the citizens within those states. Because of states’ wanting to change their formal choice to popular vote and there are two different voting styles used within the electoral college, many
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The main reason for this being that two different types of voting are being used across the states. The first one and most widely used is a “winner-takes-all” style of voting. This voting style means whichever candidate wins the majority in the popular vote in a state receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The other one, which is only used by Maine and Nebraska, is a proportional style voting. Proportional style voting is whoever wins in a state’s [House of Representatives] district receives that district’s vote. Whichever candidate wins the most districts in these two states will receive the other two votes which represents the state’s seats in Senate (Hummel 381-382). This is unfair because of instances like the election of Bush versus Gore (2000). Before the votes were counted, Gore was only three votes away from reaching the 270 votes needed and Bush only had 246 votes. After Florida’s (25) votes were counted, Bush met the 270 votes needed and was named the president-elect. This election became a national issue and even became a supreme court case. This overturned Florida’s supreme court decision for a recount and gave Bush the presidency. This election was the first time many people realized that the popular vote did not decide the president (Clayton …show more content…
District voting, for example, is an alternative because removes the inequality of the winner- takes -all system and can be changed by state law, not a constitutional amendment. Or proportional representation, which would even the balance between proportional voting and popular vote by requiring electoral votes be awarded through district proportion based on popular vote. This requires a candidate to win at least forty percent of the total electoral votes (Clayton 35-37). According to Maria Lynn McCollester, there are three main reasons to continue with the electoral college. The first reason is because it shows balanced federalism, which follows other aspects of the government like checks and balances with the bicameral legislature and the three branches of the government. The next reason is because the electoral college supports the two- party system which also acts as a balance based on parallels of the electoral college. Without main parties, in this case democratic and republican, it would be difficult, if possible, for there to be a winner. And the final reason is that the electoral college is designed to bring candidate appeal throughout the nation. Without the electoral college, candidates could win by receiving enough votes from a specific region versus going out and campaigning to
The main reason for this being that two different types of voting are being used across the states. The first one and most widely used is a “winner-takes-all” style of voting. This voting style means whichever candidate wins the majority in the popular vote in a state receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The other one, which is only used by Maine and Nebraska, is a proportional style voting. Proportional style voting is whoever wins in a state’s [House of Representatives] district receives that district’s vote. Whichever candidate wins the most districts in these two states will receive the other two votes which represents the state’s seats in Senate (Hummel 381-382). This is unfair because of instances like the election of Bush versus Gore (2000). Before the votes were counted, Gore was only three votes away from reaching the 270 votes needed and Bush only had 246 votes. After Florida’s (25) votes were counted, Bush met the 270 votes needed and was named the president-elect. This election became a national issue and even became a supreme court case. This overturned Florida’s supreme court decision for a recount and gave Bush the presidency. This election was the first time many people realized that the popular vote did not decide the president (Clayton …show more content…
District voting, for example, is an alternative because removes the inequality of the winner- takes -all system and can be changed by state law, not a constitutional amendment. Or proportional representation, which would even the balance between proportional voting and popular vote by requiring electoral votes be awarded through district proportion based on popular vote. This requires a candidate to win at least forty percent of the total electoral votes (Clayton 35-37). According to Maria Lynn McCollester, there are three main reasons to continue with the electoral college. The first reason is because it shows balanced federalism, which follows other aspects of the government like checks and balances with the bicameral legislature and the three branches of the government. The next reason is because the electoral college supports the two- party system which also acts as a balance based on parallels of the electoral college. Without main parties, in this case democratic and republican, it would be difficult, if possible, for there to be a winner. And the final reason is that the electoral college is designed to bring candidate appeal throughout the nation. Without the electoral college, candidates could win by receiving enough votes from a specific region versus going out and campaigning to