In order to understand the above subject as it relates to the 2016 elections, it is highly important to do a breakdown of the different branches that make up the final outcome of the elections held in the United States of America.
We shall start by giving an explanation of the Electoral College, which …show more content…
This number is derived from a total of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, the 100 senatorial seat and the 3 voting seats of the District of Columbia. To win a race, the Presidential candidate needs a minimum of 270 electoral votes – a simple majority.
While a lot of people feel the Electoral College should be abolished, some others see it as the preferred method of electing a president and running a fair election. The electoral college has its pros and cons, but a primary difference between the electoral college and the popular votes is that one represents the actual votes received by a candidate and the other represents the votes casts by the state.
Supporter of the Electoral College system maintain that it better represents the choices of the nation as a whole and eliminates the need to recount the votes of the entire country, lessening the chances for election fraud. They also argue that the system simplifies; a point that most critics do not agree with stating that it create in equalities among the states. Critics also argue that in the Electoral College, candidates majorly campaign in larger cities and states since those votes in the Electoral College mean …show more content…
Under the Electoral College system, it is possible that the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide does not win the election, a phenomenon that had previously occurred four times in U.S. history prior to 2016. In the 1824 presidential election John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825. The election was decided by the House of Representatives under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution after no candidate secured the required number of votes from the Electoral