Why I Amend The Electoral College

Over the course of this semester in Poli 130A /Amer 130A class, the main focus of the class is the American political system. During class, the students learn about government institutions in regards to the ideals of the founding fathers and the workings of contemporary national politics. In doing so, the students also examine critiques of various institutional arrangements. However, now that the semester is coming to an end, the students are required to think critically about government and how it relates to the Constitution of the United States. This paper provides the opportunity for me to think about the various discussions from class. I need to determine what I would want to amend in the Constitution and how that would alter the operation …show more content…
This is because over the course of time, popular votes have been lost along the process of the electoral system. Presidents such as Rutherford B. Hayes did not receive a majority of the popular vote. Hayes won 47.9% whereas Tilden received 50.9%, but Hayes still became president through a 185 to 184 vote in the electoral college. (Longley and Neal, 32) Another reason I believe why the Electoral College should be eliminated is because there is a possibility to increase the overall voter turnout. There is a possibility that more citizens would use their right to vote if they know for certain that their vote matters and makes an impact. If people know that the president becomes elected based off of the popular vote rather than only a small elite number of people, then they may want to go out and vote so that the person they view as most qualified will be elected into office. Therefore, I believe that the electoral college should not exist because it provides an opportunity for presidents to be elected who did not receive the overall majority from the popular vote. This means that in a democratic society, the nominee who the people want to be their representative may lose due to the number of electoral college …show more content…
One other concern they had when establishing the executive branch was giving the president too much power. They feared the possibility of absolute power in the executive branch such as during the reign of King George the Third occurring again. That is why they put into place both limitations on the executive branch and an Electoral College system, which would make it so that a small elite group of the population would have the overall say in who becomes elected the next president. Therefore, if the Electoral College would be eliminated, the founders would probably not react too well. All the effort that they went to in order to make sure that the president would not be elected based off of just popular votes would have gone to waste. They would probably fear that uneducated voters would be a large portion of the voter turnout. This may end up resulting in a president who may not have the best qualifications to serve as a leader for the