The Electoral College Essay -- Electoral Vote vs Popular Vote

This paper will take an in depth look at how the voting process works in the United States, but mainly focus on the Electoral College and its wrongs and rights in the American voting system. It’s difficult to understand or appreciate the Electoral College unless one completely understands its past circumstances and the problems it was attempting to solve. The Electoral College was established to elect a president in a country that was split up into thirteen states that lacked communication and transportation and was made up of 4 million people scattered through out thousands and thousands of miles (Middleton, 2012). After many attempts to set up a voting system that was accepted by the Constitutional Convention, the idea of letting the people elect the president indirectly was brought up. Which lead to the idea of the Electoral College, which was a system that was made up to let the people indirectly elect the president through a college of electors. The Electoral College is made up of electors in each state, who represent the states popular vote. Each presidential party or candidate designates a group of electors in each state, equal to the States electoral votes, who are considered to be loyal to that candidate, to each State’s chief election official. The number of electors a state receives is equal to its number of U.S. Senators plus its number of U.S. Representatives which is determined by its population (Rae, 23). Meaning that bigger states would have more Electoral votes than little states since their population is bigger. On the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in years divisible by four, the people of each state submit their votes for the slate of electors representing their Presidential candidate which is inevitably the election of the States electors and not the election of the President (www.fec.gov/pages, 1). This â€Å"winner takes all† system is what decides which presidential candidat e wins the states electoral votes. The Presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in the state has its designated electors given the electoral votes for that state which means that candidate wins all of the electoral votes for that state. You need 1 more than the majority of the electoral votes to win the presidency (Rae, 34). The only problem with this is that a presidential candidate can win the Presidency with out winning the popular vot... ...tp://www.blackpast.org/primary/voting-irregularities-florida-during-2000-presidential-election Internet Sources Consulted "Frequently Asked Questions." U. S. Electoral College: Frequently Asked Questions. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. . "Popular Vote." Dictionary of Politics and Government. London: A&C Black, 2004. Credo Reference. Web. 26 November 2012. "U. S. Electoral College: How Are the Electoral College Votes Allocated." U. S. Electoral College: How Are the Electoral College Votes Allocated. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. . "U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College?" U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College? N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. . Winston, Grant. "Poll Finds Majority Think Electoral College is a School". Web. 4 November 2012. wyfftv. "Electoral Vote vs Popular Vote." Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 5 November 2012. Web. 4. December. 2012.