The Electoral College was established in Article II, Section 1; according to the U.S. Constitution. Initially, the Electoral College supported a compromise between the popular election of the President and congressional selection for the Constitutional Convention. This initial process was changed by the Twelfth Amendment; ratified in 1804; which allowed separate ballots to determine who the President and Vice President will be (Gillon, et al. 2010). Why do we have the Electoral College? The purpose of the Electoral College was made for two reasons. The first reason was to make a safeguard between the selection of a President and the population. As for the second reason; it is that due to the smaller states getting extra; founding fathers wanted to protect the structure of the government (Schulman 2018).
The Electoral College is an institution by the founding fathers to elect the next president. Its process consist of the election of the electors, the meeting of electors where they cast the votes, and Congress that counts the electoral votes. The Electoral College votes contain 538 electors casting their votes; which determines who the President and the Vice President of the United States will be (Potts 2013). These 538 electoral votes are the sum of 435 House of Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 allocating electoral votes given to the District of Columbia; which is also referred as “state” in the Twenty-Third Amendment (Huffington, et al. 2016). When it is time to vote, voters will go the designated place to choose which candidate will receive their state’s electors. The presidency will be determined from which; the candidate who receives a majority of 270 required electoral votes (Patterson 2017).
Every four years; the Electoral College is held. For the President along with the Vice President to be chosen; the voters go to their polling location to vote and decide which candidate they think is best, more fitted, or will make our country better. Within all that states but two, the candidate who has the majority votes in a state is the winner of that state’s elective votes. The two exceptions from the other states are Nebraska and Main. Each of their electoral votes are appointed by an alternative of proportional depiction. This means that the leading absolute majority vote in those states will win the electoral vote (two Senators) while the remaining votes are assigned congressional district by the congressional district (Huffington 2016). To receive electoral votes from the two states; Nebraska and Maine; those rules make it likely for both candidates; unlike the other forty-eight states and the District Columbia in the winner-take-all system (Potts 2013).
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American citizens are naive of the function of the Electoral College because they believe in error that they directly elect the President and Vice President when in fact the “Electors” representing the candidates cast the Electoral College votes. I believe the most common criticism of the Electoral College is the winner-take-all system, which picks the wrong winner, and the candidate that did not win the popular election. With the winner-take all system, it awards the entire state’s electoral votes to the candidate that obtains the greatest of the popular vote. According to William C. Kimberling, “One way in which a minority president could be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more presidential candidates split the electoral votes among them such that no one obtained the necessary majority. This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully attempted in 1948 and again in 1968 (Kimberling 2017).” If that should happen today, there are two possible resolutions: one either the candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of another before the meeting of the Electors, or the absence of an absolute majority in the Electoral College, the U.S. House of Representatives would select the president in accordance with the 12th Amendment. Although, the person taking office would not have obtained most of the popular vote.
Another pro it enhances the status of minority groups, which is far from diminishing minority interests by depressing voter participation to the Electoral College. Josephson, said, “the electoral college, proponents say, makes U.S. presidential elections less contentious by providing a clear ending. There’s no need for a national recount when you have an electoral college. If one state has and to win, a candidate must garner the support of voters in a variety of regions. Voting issues, you can just do a recount in that state rather than creating national upheaval (Josephson 2018).” I have a better understanding that the development of a true national alliance will be made from the candidate who wins the presidency. This alliance will help boost the national attachment, the transfer of power between the presidents, and advance in keeping stability to the nation’s political system.
