Preview

United States Electoral System

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
363 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
United States Electoral System
The electoral systems of the United States and Europe are quite different from

each other. Americans hold more frequent elections at all level of government for more offices than any other nation and the number of participating electorates increases steadily over time (O 'Connor, Sabato, Yanus 359). Many European countries use Single
Transferable vote system; a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation that apportions legislative seats according to the percentage of votes a political party receives. Unlike most European countries, the United states has a single­member, plurality electoral system, often referred to as the winner­take­all system, or a system in which the party that receives one more vote than any other part

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College is an institution that may have served a purpose 200 years ago when the founding fathers needed a system that would be met with approval by both large and small states. The Electoral College is a flawed method of electing our President that has created problems in previous elections and is likely to be the source of problems in the future. The Electoral College provides an undemocratic method of choosing our president that potentially undermines the will of the voters. Not only can a candidate be elected without actually winning the most votes, it puts our elections at the mercy of electors who don't always cast their vote as pledged. I intend to demonstrate that the problems inherent in this voting method far outweigh any benefits it may provide. Replacing the winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes with a system such as proportional representation or eliminating the college altogether in favor of direct election is the best way to ensure a trouble-free and fair election…

    • 2120 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Growing up as kids we were taught the design of our democracy and the constitutional principles. According to the Webster Dictionary a democracy is “ government in which people choose their leaders by voting, and where they are treated equally and have equal rights.” The definition does not capture what the United States feels it's a democracy. The United States is believe in the democratic ideology is, but is best known as a representative republic. In The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001: "Traditionally a republic is distinguished from a true democracy in that the republic operates through a representative assembly chosen by the citizenry, while in a democracy the populace participates directly in governmental affairs. In actual practice,…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electoral College Dbq

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The electoral college, the body that chooses the president. The electoral college is the group of people chosen to represent what the citizens want. After the people vote it is up to the electoral college to cast their vote. Their votes are also called electoral votes. The electoral college is a fair way to vote but it should be changed in certain places.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    majority of the states, and those that were on the ballot in a majority of…

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The big problems of the electoral system were particularly evident in the 2000 elections: There may have been significant discrepancies between the voter decision and the electoral vote; a candidate who obtains the most vote’s nationwide, does not necessarily have to combine the most electors. Al Gore won in 2000, the absolute majority of votes, but received fewer votes in the Electoral College as his opponent George W. Bush. Another disadvantage is the focus of the candidates on states where pollsters cannot predict a clear decision (in particular, the traditional Swing States). The other states get little attention during the election campaign, often sequentially resulting in below average turnouts. The same is shared in the coastal states…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electoral College Dbq

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    During 1787, delegates, known as the founding fathers, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to form a new system of government. Creating a functioning and fair way to elect public officials proved to be a difficult task for the founding fathers. They attempted to find a way to balance the power between individual states and the national government. This was eventually laid out in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, which made the Electoral College the form voting system the United States uses to elect the President and Vice President. There are people in present day society who firmly believe that the constitution is still very relevant today and believe that it gives a fair and equal representation of all the states. Even though the…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. What is the minimum number of states that a candidate needs to win in order to win the election? What are those states?…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the election period in the United States, there is a system dubbed “Winner-Take all” in which the candidate with the most votes in the electoral college wins all of the state’s electoral votes. Meaning, if a candidate were to win the popular vote among the masses, they would not necessarily be elected president unless they manage to win the favor of the electoral college. The founding fathers created this system as they did not trust the general public to wisely elect a leader. The electoral college is a group of people selected to represent the States and casts votes on who they believe should be president and vice president on the public’s behalf. However, true as it might be that humans are biased and look after themselves…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    electoral college

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ELECTORAL COLLEGE : The reason why we use the electoral college in the U.S. is to decide who is going to be the next president. The presidency is not always won by popular vote. The founding fathers opted for an electoral college , because they wanted the president to be chosen by those who were well informed ,and qualified enough to have the ability to chose a president. The main argument against the electoral college is that the presidency should be won by popular vote alone. It shouldn’t be that one candidate could win the popular vote, and still lose the election. One of the pros of the electoral college is that the system persuades candidates to promote themselves in small and big cities of the battle states. Another pro of the system is if a recount was needed it could often be centered to the specific state (s) . For example in 2000 a recount was proposed in the state of Florida between Al gore and George w. Bush, if not for the electoral college the recount may have had to take place in the nation. One of the cons of the electoral college is that it has a major possibility of not representing the popular opinion , by that I mean the voting system has the hazard of a “faithless” elector a person who is pledged to vote for a specific party s candidate but votes for an other . The electoral college has preformed its function for over 200 years by ensuring that the president of the U.S. has both sufficient poplar support to govern and his support is sufficiently distributed throughout the country to enable him to govern effectively. The fact that the electoral college was originally designed to solve one set of problems but today serves to solve an entirely different set of problems is a tribute to the genius of the Founding Fathers .…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that the biggest problem that faces our country today, is the use of the electoral college system. The electoral college system was originally put in place, because the founding fathers did not believe that the uneducated general public, had the ability to make the choice of president. But know a days, most of the people that vote are educated unto at least a high school diploma, which in my opinion takes away the need for an electoral college system.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    I will analyze and provide need information about the Electoral College. I will define the Electoral College and it’s true history of its name and much more. The Electoral College is filled with history and reasons it came to be as it is. Also I will explain to you how to become an Elector while telling you the significance and the ultimate job of the Electoral College.…

    • 1702 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Electoral College

    • 2179 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The Electoral College is a process that began as part of the original design, of the U.S. Constitution and was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between the election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. As we all know, Americans were given a serious reminder in 2000 that the president is not elected by nationwide popular vote, but by a majority of the electoral votes. It’s an example of indirect election as opposed to direct election by U.S. citizens, (i.e. the members of the U.S. House of Representatives.) Should the Electoral College be reformed or done away with altogether, has been a hotly debated subject since one of the first ever public polls, on the subject matter, was given in 1944? According to a Gallop Poll taken on November 11-12, 2000, sixty-one percent of Americans supported a constitutional amendment to allow the national popular vote winner to assume the presidency, (http://www.galluppoll.com). Critics of the Electoral College argue, among many things, that it is at its very core undemocratic because only 538 people are responsible for the election of our president and vice president while proponents argue that it protects the rights of smaller states. It is my desire, through this discussion, to highlight the arguments for and against the Electoral College, bringing about dialogue on this controversial subject.…

    • 2179 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Electoral College

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Electoral College is a group of people who elect a president and vice president. It is described in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. The electors are not required to follow popular vote, so, candidates can win electoral vote and presidency and not win popular vote. It would be more politically and economically beneficial to the USA to keep the Electoral College and not let the public take full advantage of the votes because the public will most likely vote for materialistic reasons and not political reasons.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electoral College System

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In America, every four years there is a presidential election that gives Americans the right to vote. The United States is a role model to other countries of the concept of giving all citizens equal share in the government and the way it is run. The Electoral College ruins the voting and creates an unfair system that is not equal. It destroys the fundamental part of democracy that gives everyone the right to vote. The Electoral College raises the question "Is the United States a republic?". With the Electoral College, it is a winner take all system which makes some votes practically useless. The founding fathers believed that most people were uneducated and would make uninformed decisions and the way news travel has changed. With this system,…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The electoral college is a very intricate and lengthy system the United States has in place to designate the resulting president. This is a system our founding fathers came up with when developing the country and a system that has been in place for centuries. And although this is a system people know and are accustom to, there is much surrounding controversy. Many people feel this is an ineffective method of selecting the president, while others feel that it works just fine. The Electoral College is the method that been used for hundreds of years in electing the president, but that does not mean it is the best form of election.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays