The Electoral College

Explain the Electoral College. What exactly is it? Why is it a good thing? Why is it not such a good thing? What do you think - should we keep it, or should we just have a popular vote? Do your own research and explain your findings.

Wouldn't you feel alarmed if someone told you that even when you vote for the presidential candidate of your choice and that candidate wins the majority of the population's votes he/she still cannot win? Well, welcome to the USA! In the US we have a system that is considered democratic in which people 18 and over and citizens of this country can vote for the candidates for presidency every 4 years. The thing with voting is that it is not just simply casting votes and counting who wins, it depends on the Electoral College. The Electoral College system was established in Article II of the Constitution and amended by the 12th amendment in 1804. The electors are a popularly elected body chosen by the States. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors (one for each of 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 Senators; and 3 for the District of Columbia). A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President and Vice President. No Constitutional or Federal law requires electors to vote in accordance with the popular vote in their State. So pretty much you vote and then it is up to the number of people in your state that are part of the electoral college to choose who wins all the votes from your state, even if it is different from the candidate that the population chose. If none of the candidates win 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment kicks in and the election is decided by the House of Representatives. The real President and Vice president are announced by December.

A good thing about the electoral college is that it allows candidates to go to states and try to pursue them to vote for them because they know how many votes each state gets and it lets them work out a better strategy to gain the support of the people. It also maintains separation of powers among the three branches of government.

The electoral college is not such a good thing because the Electoral College system makes it possible for a candidate to actually lose the nationwide popular vote, but be elected president by the Electoral College and this just makes the population's votes countless. The perfect example would be if a candidate doesn't get a single vote in 39 states and wins 11 of these 12 states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia they could still be elected president since these states account for exactly 270 votes. The electoral college is set up this way so people could have a direct popular election as well as an election by congress. But what happens when the election by congress does not in any way reflect the wishes of those who voted and have a right for their votes to be heard and taken into consideration? Most of us know about the 2000 presidential election and the 8 years of George W. Bush's administration. In 2000 there were a total of 538 electoral votes available with 270 needed to win. Republican George W. Bush, with 50,456,002 popular votes won 271 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent, Al Gore, won the popular vote with 50,999,897 votes, but won only 266 electoral votes. This is appalling.

So with all the pros and cons and all of the years this method has been used for, in my opinion, we should stop using the electoral college system to choose our presidents. Maybe back then, when there wasn't enough laws or a strong checks and balances system it was a bit too risky to have direct popular elections but in the modern world that we live today, we just can't have a system like this and call it democratic. Over the past 200 years, over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral College as "archaic" and "ambiguous" and its polling showed 69% of lawyers favored abolishing it in 1987. But surveys of political scientists have supported continuation of the Electoral College. Public opinion polls have shown Americans favored abolishing it by majorities of 58% in 1967; 81% in 1968; and 75% in 1981. So to the congress of the United States of America, listen! Listen very closely to what your country is saying.