The electoral college

Why does the U.

But there are also staunch defenders of the Electoral College who, though perhaps less vocal than its critics, offer very powerful arguments in its favor. Arguments Against the Electoral College Those who object to the Electoral College system and favor a direct popular election of the president generally do so on four grounds: Opponents of the Electoral College are disturbed by the possibility of electing a minority president one without the absolute majority The electoral college popular votes.

Nor is this concern entirely unfounded since there are three ways in which that could happen. 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.

Arguments for and against the electoral college

This occurred, as noted above, in and was unsuccessfully attempted in and again in Should that happen today, there are two possible resolutions: House of Representatives would select the president in accordance with the 12th Amendment.

Either way, though, the person taking office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. Yet it is unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add substantially to the The electoral college, cost, and effort already devoted to selecting a president and which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them.

This issue was mentioned above and is discussed at greater length below. Far from being unusual, this sort of thing has, in fact, happened 15 times including in this century Wilson in both andTruman inKennedy inand Nixon in The only remarkable thing about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared.

Opponents of the Electoral College system also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. There have been 7 such Electors in this century and as recently as when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president instead of the other way around.

Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an election, though, simply because most often their purpose is to make a statement rather than make a difference.

That is to say, when the electoral vote outcome is so obviously going to be for one candidate or the other, an occasional Elector casts a vote for some personal favorite knowing full well that it will not make a difference in the result.

Still, if the prospect of a faithless Elector is so fearsome as to warrant a Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely mathematical process since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its operation.

• United States Electoral College - Wikipedia
• The Electoral College - Origin and History
• What Is The Electoral College? How It Works And Why It Matters | HuffPost

Opponents of the Electoral College are further concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout. Their argument is that, since each State is entitled to the same number of electoral votes regardless of its voter turnout, there is no incentive in the States to encourage voter participation.

Indeed, there may even be an incentive to discourage participation and they often cite the South here so as to enable a minority of citizens to decide the electoral vote for the whole State. While this argument has a certain surface plausibility, it fails to account for the fact that presidential elections do not occur in a vacuum.

States also conduct other elections for U. Representatives, State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials in which these same incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force.

History and operation

It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral College. Finally, some opponents of the Electoral College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the national popular will in at least two respects.

First, the distribution of Electoral votes in the College tends to over-represent people in rural States. The result is that infor example, the combined voting age population 3, of the seven least populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College 21 Electoral votes as the 9, persons of voting age in the State of Florida.

A second way in which the Electoral College fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from the winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes in the State wins all the Electoral votes of that State.

One effect of this mechanism is to make it extremely difficult for third party or independent candidates ever to make much of a showing in the Electoral College. And even if he managed to win a few States, his support elsewhere would not be reflected.The United States Electoral College is a body of electors established by the United States Constitution, constituted every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the United States.

The Electoral College consists of electors. Nov 10,  · Watch video · The quirks of the Electoral College system were exposed this week when Donald Trump secured the presidency with an Electoral College majority, even as Hillary Clinton took a narrow lead in the.

Just like we do every four years, America’s getting ready for another Presidential election. But did you know your vote doesn’t go straight to your favorite candidate? That’s because the. Nov 10,  · Watch video · As Americans await the quadrennial running of the presidential obstacle course now known as the Electoral College, it’s worth remembering why we have this odd political contraption in the first.

Nov 09,  · The Electoral College is a group of people that elects the president and the vice president of the United States. (The word “college” in this . caninariojana.com is an interactive Electoral College map for and a history of Presidential elections in the United States.

Since electoral votes are generally allocated on an "all or none" basis by state, the election of a U.S President is about winning the popular vote in enough states to achieve electoral votes, a majority of the that are available.