Electoral College System Essays -- Political Science

Analyze criticism of the "Electoral College" system and the alleged advantages and disadvantages of various reform proposals. The Electoral College is a system in which the individual voter does not actually vote directly for the president. When a person votes they are voting for an elector that has pledged their vote or allegiance to the running party. The Framers realized that without widespread communications available at the time and with other varying factors an "each vote counts" or "the popular vote" system would not be practical. Because of this they formed the Electoral College system, Under Article II of the US Constitution, although this system was never called this in the Article. This system has survived for over 200 years, with only two changes to it. These would be Amendment 12, and 23 of US Constitution. Many people have throughout the years said that the Electoral College is antiquated and needs to be changed, where as many others defended the Electoral College system. Some people believe the Electoral College system have many flaws, these can include electing a minority president, faithless Electors, the Electoral College causing a decline in voter turnout, the inequality of votes from large to small states, and the disadvantages for third parties. One large issue is that a president could be elected without the countries popular vote. One way this can happen is if three or more parties run splitting the Electoral votes so no one party can receive the majority of the votes. This has happened in 1824 and almost happened in 1948, and in 1968. If this does happen Amendment 12 states that the U.S. House of Representatives would then select the president from the top three. Another big issue is Electors t... ...at would like the votes to be split between parties. One of the last proposed changes is the "drop two" Electoral votes. In this proposal each states Electoral votes would be equal to their state Representatives. This system would function the same but just remove two Electoral votes from each state. This would still allow small states to over represent but would lessen the effects. Even though the Electoral College system has many flaws, it has worked for well over 200 years. Many people feel that the system is old and needs to be updated but the system was well thought out by the Framers. Ref: http://www.fec.gov/pdf/eleccoll.pdf http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College http://jceb.co.jackson.mo.us/fun_stuff/electoral_college.htm http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/case/3pt/electoral.html#pro