Logan2016
Nov 25, 2012
Undergraduate / 'The end of the Electoral College' - College App Essay: Electoral Colleges [3]
Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the
significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
Logan Thompson
The end of the Electoral College
In 1787, the Framers were given a problem, deciding on how to elect the president. They thought about it for a long time and finally came up with a system that we call the Electoral Colleges. This system was supposed to be temporary until another system was devised, but that never happened. It has failed several times; it is undemocratic, antiquated, and convoluted. A new system need to be put into place.
In Robert Watson article Electoral College should Be Replaced he breaks down the Electoral College system. There are 538 electoral votes and the first candidate that reaches 270 votes wins. Sometimes the outcome is not so close, for example Barack Obama beating John McCain 365 to 173. And then there are some that are extremely close to the point of being controversial, like George W. Bush beating Al Gore with 271 electoral votes
In a way there is a way to predict the Electoral Colleges because there are certain states that almost always vote one way. Red stated are republican states like, Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky ,Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Then there are Blue states that tend to vote Democratic such as, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, and District of Columbia. If all of those vote that way it will be pretty close to a tie. That's where the "purple" states come in. Purple States are states that can go either way, Democratic or Republican, these states include Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. A lot of the time these "purple" states decide the election.
There is a chance that a mathematical tie, both sides can get 269 electoral votes. In this case the constitution says the House of Representatives breaks the tie and selects the president among the three leading vote-getters. And the vice president is chosen by the Senate. The author references the 2008 election again saying that if a tie were to occur the House, which was predominately Democrat, would have chosen Obama. And the Senate was 50 percent Republican and 50 percent Democrat, which mean the current vice president would have chosen the new vice president, Cheney, a Republican, would have chosen Sarah Palin. These events would have caused an Obama-Palin White House. Bringing this situation to today the House is Republican controlled and the Senate has a slight majority of Democrats and that would make a new presidential combo of Romney-Biden. Both of those situations would most likely end in some kind of dispute between the two.
Next the author talks about the problem of "faithless" electors. Faithless electors are electors that do not always vote the way the state they are supposed to be representing votes. Electors are supposed to vote the way the way they campaigned, but they are not obligated to. Since the beginning of the Electoral College system there have been 156 accounts of electors voting against how their state voted. When the system was made in 1787 they were unsure of how to pick a president, they spent the summer of 1787 coming up with a system that they could find common ground on. Thus the Electoral College System was born; it was not intended to be a permanent solution. Just a temporary solution until a better one was conceived. Well its 2012 and that System is still alive a kicking, the same system that has failed in 1800, 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000, probably about time we switch on over to a popular vote system.
In Benjamin Bolinger's article he stresses the point that the electoral colleges should be abolished. He talks about how the Electoral College system is faulty and how the presidential voting system should be a majority rules system.
The Electoral College is based on population, from the census, and each state receives a minimum of three electoral votes. Contrary to congressional seats that are assigned in the House of Representatives, that is also divided according to population with a minimum of one per state. The Electoral College seats in most states go to members of the victorious party. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska that awards their electoral votes to the winner of each congressional district. Because of this it has caused four times in American history where the candidate wins the presidential election by winning the Electoral College but losing the popular vote.
Some states are largely overrepresented in the, and example would be California. In the 2000 census California had a population of 33,871,648, giving it fifty-five electoral votes. Meanwhile Wyoming, the least populous state, had only 493,782 residents, giving it only three electoral votes. That is a 4:1 ratio. That means four Wyoming citizens are equal to one California citizen. Wyoming is not the only state that is not given the fair amount of Electoral votes. District of Columbia, Vermont, and North Dakota are also misrepresented, when compared to California, Texas, and Florida. Having some citizen's vote's count more than others are a failure to withhold equal representation. At least they get votes citizens from Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Island are completely excluded from the Electoral College system. Puerto Rico alone has 3,808,610 citizens.
Abolishing the Electoral College and replacing it with a run-off/preference voting system would not cure all the problems of the American Government. Many great presidents have lost the popular vote and won the college vote such as Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy. So the popular vote system would not be perfect but imagine what America would be like if the Electoral College system was abolished and what presidents we would have had.
Work Cited:
Bolinger, Benjamin. "Point: Abolishing The Electoral College." International Social Science Review 82.3/4 (2007): 179-182. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
Watson, Robert. "Electoral College Should Be Replaced." Sun-Sentinel. 11 Mar 2012: A.19. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Oct 2012.
Thank you
-Logan Thompson
Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the
significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
Logan Thompson
The end of the Electoral College
In 1787, the Framers were given a problem, deciding on how to elect the president. They thought about it for a long time and finally came up with a system that we call the Electoral Colleges. This system was supposed to be temporary until another system was devised, but that never happened. It has failed several times; it is undemocratic, antiquated, and convoluted. A new system need to be put into place.
In Robert Watson article Electoral College should Be Replaced he breaks down the Electoral College system. There are 538 electoral votes and the first candidate that reaches 270 votes wins. Sometimes the outcome is not so close, for example Barack Obama beating John McCain 365 to 173. And then there are some that are extremely close to the point of being controversial, like George W. Bush beating Al Gore with 271 electoral votes
In a way there is a way to predict the Electoral Colleges because there are certain states that almost always vote one way. Red stated are republican states like, Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky ,Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Then there are Blue states that tend to vote Democratic such as, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, and District of Columbia. If all of those vote that way it will be pretty close to a tie. That's where the "purple" states come in. Purple States are states that can go either way, Democratic or Republican, these states include Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. A lot of the time these "purple" states decide the election.
There is a chance that a mathematical tie, both sides can get 269 electoral votes. In this case the constitution says the House of Representatives breaks the tie and selects the president among the three leading vote-getters. And the vice president is chosen by the Senate. The author references the 2008 election again saying that if a tie were to occur the House, which was predominately Democrat, would have chosen Obama. And the Senate was 50 percent Republican and 50 percent Democrat, which mean the current vice president would have chosen the new vice president, Cheney, a Republican, would have chosen Sarah Palin. These events would have caused an Obama-Palin White House. Bringing this situation to today the House is Republican controlled and the Senate has a slight majority of Democrats and that would make a new presidential combo of Romney-Biden. Both of those situations would most likely end in some kind of dispute between the two.
Next the author talks about the problem of "faithless" electors. Faithless electors are electors that do not always vote the way the state they are supposed to be representing votes. Electors are supposed to vote the way the way they campaigned, but they are not obligated to. Since the beginning of the Electoral College system there have been 156 accounts of electors voting against how their state voted. When the system was made in 1787 they were unsure of how to pick a president, they spent the summer of 1787 coming up with a system that they could find common ground on. Thus the Electoral College System was born; it was not intended to be a permanent solution. Just a temporary solution until a better one was conceived. Well its 2012 and that System is still alive a kicking, the same system that has failed in 1800, 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000, probably about time we switch on over to a popular vote system.
In Benjamin Bolinger's article he stresses the point that the electoral colleges should be abolished. He talks about how the Electoral College system is faulty and how the presidential voting system should be a majority rules system.
The Electoral College is based on population, from the census, and each state receives a minimum of three electoral votes. Contrary to congressional seats that are assigned in the House of Representatives, that is also divided according to population with a minimum of one per state. The Electoral College seats in most states go to members of the victorious party. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska that awards their electoral votes to the winner of each congressional district. Because of this it has caused four times in American history where the candidate wins the presidential election by winning the Electoral College but losing the popular vote.
Some states are largely overrepresented in the, and example would be California. In the 2000 census California had a population of 33,871,648, giving it fifty-five electoral votes. Meanwhile Wyoming, the least populous state, had only 493,782 residents, giving it only three electoral votes. That is a 4:1 ratio. That means four Wyoming citizens are equal to one California citizen. Wyoming is not the only state that is not given the fair amount of Electoral votes. District of Columbia, Vermont, and North Dakota are also misrepresented, when compared to California, Texas, and Florida. Having some citizen's vote's count more than others are a failure to withhold equal representation. At least they get votes citizens from Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Island are completely excluded from the Electoral College system. Puerto Rico alone has 3,808,610 citizens.
Abolishing the Electoral College and replacing it with a run-off/preference voting system would not cure all the problems of the American Government. Many great presidents have lost the popular vote and won the college vote such as Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy. So the popular vote system would not be perfect but imagine what America would be like if the Electoral College system was abolished and what presidents we would have had.
Work Cited:
Bolinger, Benjamin. "Point: Abolishing The Electoral College." International Social Science Review 82.3/4 (2007): 179-182. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
Watson, Robert. "Electoral College Should Be Replaced." Sun-Sentinel. 11 Mar 2012: A.19. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Oct 2012.
Thank you
-Logan Thompson