Presidential elections are an important part of American history because expresses the right to vote which many generations before us fought for. In order to win the Presidency one must get the most electoral votes or the majority of them. Many today do not agree with this system that was put in place by the founding fathers many years ago. Many see it as old fashioned and no longer needed in today’s day and age. The electoral college should be abolished because it follows an old philosophy that was set by our founding fathers long ago.
The philosophy of the founding fathers was that the common man was not intelligent enough to make a decision on something so important as the presidential election. The electoral college is the name given to a group of electors who are nominated by political activists and party members within the states.There are numerous reasons why this is so. With the Electoral College in affect third parties don’t have a chance to become the president, which isn’t fair.The electoral College was created so long ago that it is now outdated, so we shouldn’t even have electors. People of the U.S. may think that they are participating in a direct election for the president, but with the Electoral College system. The Founding Fathers enshrined the Electoral College in the Constitution of United States as they thought it to the best way to choose the president. The usage of electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard against uneducated or uninformed voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors most likely to possess the information which is required to make the best decision. Although this may have been true in the past because many were not fortunate enough to have a formal education.
However, today kids are educated at a young age on history and basic politics. In today’s scenario updated technology allows voters to get required information to make informed decisions in a manner that could not have been foreseen by the Founding Fathers. No longer should the dissenting opinions of people be silenced. Also with the rise of social media many can get the latest news on all political information and the candidates policies. Also the electoral college eliminates the possibility of a third party to win the presidency. This is because third party candidates may get a large percentage of the popular votes, but no electoral votes if they don’t carry a state because it’s difficult to win electoral votes, it makes it harder for third party candidates to raise funds and gain resources. This makes the system unfair for everyone that wants to run who has the support of the people but are unable to get as much funds or resources as the two major parties. Also the founding fathers did not care or even believe in having only two political parties. They would be extremely disappointment in the fact that we only really look at two different political views and ideologies. Abolishing the electoral college and changing it to the majority vote winner would allow for better overall election system because it makes the election system more fair for everyone running.
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Many people disapprove of the electoral college. One former president James Madison was one of the critics of the the Electoral College. The “Father of the Constitution” himself, James Madison, was never in favor of our current system for electing the president, one in which nearly all states award their electoral votes to the state wide popular vote winner. He ultimately backed a constitutional amendment to prohibit this practice. James maddison knew the problems that the electoral college brings one being the “winner takes all” method . Maddison is correct when it comes to Winner takes all rules for allocating the electoral votes there is huge inequality because when it comes to winner take all vote for the state the person who win the popular votes will gets all electoral votes for the state. Also this winner takes all system is not backed by constitution, current presidential ship is not being won fairly. At the end when it comes to choosing the president the votes of common man in not considered.
In Electoral College there are 538 Electors from Electoral votes of every state and president need majority of 270 to win. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. Many believe in the same theory in which Maddison did which is the popular vote should win the election. The biggest difference between the popular vote and electoral vote is the use of electors, or representatives for each state, in the electoral college. The biggest criticism of the electoral vote system is that it is possible for a presidential candidate to win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote. That is, more Americans voted for the candidate but he or she still lost. One the main problems with the electoral college is that it allows coordinates of a particular party to focus on some states which are called swing states.
This is because Democratic and Republican parties have each developed solid bases in a series of states that are all but certain to vote for them in a presidential year. But the Electoral College winner will be determined by those few swing states that are more divided politically and look like they could go either way. This is not good for the states that candidates know they will get the votes because they will have limited time campaigning there. If the electoral college was abolished they would have to focus on all states because every vote would matter. An example of where the popular vote or the people’s votes did not matter was in 2000, Al Gore won half a million more votes than George W. Bush nationwide, but Bush won the presidency after he was declared the winner in Florida by a mere 537 votes. This was not the only time in 2016 Hillary Clinton had more popular votes than Donald Trump but Trump had more electoral votes allowing him to win the presidency. As many know this did not portray the mass of the population due to the amount of dislike for the current president. This makes many believe there votes do not have as much meaning because the candidates the majority vote for are losing. The electoral college allows candidates that the majority of the population do not like. Abolishing the electoral college would be better for all because it would ensure that the candidate the majority of the people like and voted for will be president.
The presidential elections have been an important part of American history since its independence. However, the system that we have in place for the presidential election is old fashion and no longer suited for today. Without advance technology and overall smarter society due to more formal education we deserve a better election system. A popular vote election or majority vote election would be more up to date with today’s more modern society because it allows everyone vote to be more meaningful. The electoral college should be abolished because it is no longer up to date with the views and the overall society today.
