Abolish the Electoral College Now!
Definition of the Problem:
The United States has a problem and just kicking it down the road isn’t enough anymore. The Electoral College was established in 1787 during a period in America’s history when the Founding Fathers had few models to draw on when they crafted the presidential election laws.
Since its establishment, the Electoral College has been the formal body that is used to elect the nation’s president and vice president rather than relying on a straight count of the nation-wide popular vote. The operation of the Electoral College is set forth in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution which stipulates that the total of representatives and senators that each state has equals the number of "electors" it sends to the Electoral College (the District of Columbia has three electors in the Electoral College).
This means that when Americans vote in presidential elections, they are not voting directly for the candidate of their choice but rather for a slate of electors that is then tasked with casting their ballots in line with the voters’ preferences districts (Electoral college facts, 2020).
Unfortunately, this Rube Goldberg approach to electing the leader of the Free World has subverted the will of the American people more than once, and the potential for future recurrences is even greater due to politically motivated demographic manipulations of voter districts and increasingly overt efforts at voter suppression. In sum, the American people want, need and deserve to elect their president directly.
Analysis of the Problem
Over the course of the 56 presidential elections in the history of the United States, the winner of the popular vote lost the election due to the outcome of the Electoral College vote at least four times, meaning that the will of the American people was subverted by this irrelevant, arcane and archaic government institution.
Although the candidate that receives the most popular votes is required to receive the electoral votes in 26 states and the District of...
Fortunately, unlike the answers to most of the major crises that are facing the country at present, the solution to promoting participatory politics in the United States is straightforward and easy to implement: Abolish the Electoral College and do it today! As Althouse (2011) concludes, “Direct popular election of the President is the only real reform” (p. 994). Please contact your congressional representatives and senators and encourage them to abolish the Electoral College through a constitutional amendment at the earliest opportunity. The country and its electorate deserve no less!
Now is the time!
The American people have waited long enough! We hope you join us in our efforts to abolish the Electoral College and make America a real democracy where every vote really does count once and for all. Continuing to ignore the votes of more than tens of millions of Americans has repercussions beyond each presidential election and extends to an increasing dilution of trust in a voting system that routinely marginalizes a majority of American voters.…
References
Althouse, A. (2009, Spring). Electoral College reform: Deja vu. Northwestern University Law Review, 95(3), 993-999.
Black, E. (2012, October 14). Ten reasons why the Electoral College should be eliminated. Minneapolis Post. Retrieved from https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2012/10/10-reasons-why-electoral-college-problem/.
Electoral college facts. (2020). U.S. House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Retrieved from https://history.house.gov/Institution/Electoral-College/Electoral-College/.
Pearson, C. (2020, March-April). Winner-take-all ignores the will of too many voters: The Electoral College should follow the popular vote. State Legislature, 46(2), 29-33.
Should we elect the president by popular vote? After hundreds of attempts to abolish Electoral College, opponents are promoting a plan to work around It. New York Times Upfront, 140(10), 22.
Electoral College When the constitution of United States was framed there were discussions on various methods of selecting the President and the method of a direct popular vote was rejected. The reasons for rejection were the poor state of communications and the large distances in between the states. This was felt to make the voters really be familiar with the candidates from their own states and this might lead to the
The Electoral College could easily lead to the election of a President that does not have the popular support of the entire nation (Amar pp). Moreover, many believe that the clauses of the U.S. Constitution that provide for the electoral system should be removed before the country elects a candidate despite the fact that another candidate received more votes (Amar pp). Today, technology allows for an informed national electorate as
Electoral College The current function of the Electoral College is that each state has a set number of votes for the President, based on the population of that state. The candidate with the most votes in that state would receive all of that state's Electoral College votes. The system has come under fire from critics would point out the flaws in this system. For example, it does not differentiate between a
Electoral College: Should the U.S. Push for Reform or Elimination? When citizens of the United States vote in a presidential election, many believe that they are taking part in a direct election of the president (Sutin 2003). However, because of the existence of the electoral college, established in the U.S. Constitution, this is not really true. The electoral college is a set group of "electors" who are nominated by political activists and
Supporters of the current system claim it allows small states and small town America to have a say in the election. The candidates go to every corner of the battleground states and many people get the opportunity to meet and question them. Many feel that is a major benefit of the Electoral College. Another benefit many see is that it gives the winning candidate the majority of the vote.
This is just as important as having a president who is equally representative of the interests of each state. The Founding Fathers succeeded admirably in the area of state-based election of the president, but did they succeed in also ensuring we have a democratically elected president? Are public presidential elections really shams, leaving us with a president who is essentially appointed by political party favorites, or does he represent
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