Electoral College Essay

Submitted By Hmurry1992
Words: 847
Pages: 4

Electoral College Evaluation A candidate that is running in the presidential election is able to the majority of the popular vote but the minority of the electoral vote is because of the Electoral College system. The Electoral College has electors for each state, and the amount of votes each states gets is two, plus the number of representatives it has in congress. In our election we all cast our vote for who we thing should be president. That is the popular vote. But then the electors from each state cast their vote for who the Electoral votes goes towards. For a candidate for president to win he must get at least 270 electoral out of the 538 of them. So wither or now if the sates manly votes republican the state’s electoral votes could go to the Democratic Party. This is how a candidate can receive the majority of the popular vote but the minority of the electoral vote and still lose the election. The Electoral College was created by the founding fathers trying to solve many problems. There were thirteen small and large states all suspicious of a national government. Only at the time roughly for million people with no way to communicate are ways of transportation to get to them. Also most thought, from examples British politics, that all political parties are corrupt. Last it was believed that the person running for office should not decide to run by his choice. But to let the people choose who should run for office. That way all candidates were chosen by the people. So after 3 ideas that have failed they chose to go with an indirect system for choosing the winner. This was based off the Roman Catholic Church. With this system the most knowledgeable individuals choose the individual based on merit, not what political party he is from or where he is from. With the first design Each State was allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators plus the number of its U.S. Representative, always 2 electors. This arrangement built upon an earlier compromise in the design of the Congress itself and thus satisfied both large and small States. The down side of the first design was that there were ties allowed. The on election that caused the biggest issue was the election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. They both received the same number of electoral votes. In the first design the House of Representatives would then vote for who becomes president but in the election mentioned above they had the House of Representatives vote 36 times before there was actually a winner. So a second design was created. In the second design the 12th amendment was added that each Elector cast one vote for president and a separate vote for vice president rather than casting two votes for president with the runner-up being made vice president. The 12nd Amendment also says that if no one receives an absolute majority of electoral votes for president, then the U.S. House of Representatives will select the president from among the top three contenders with each State casting only one vote and an absolute majority being required to elect. The constitution only says that “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may