The Electoral College Versus a Direct Election System

The Electoral College Versus a Direct Election System â€Å"The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President†¦they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President† (Findlaw.com). The Twelfth Amendment set forth the rules and regulations for which the Office of President shall be determined. The founding fathers, in the second constitutional convention, laid the grounds on which setup what would be the Electoral College. Adoption of the Electoral College plan came late in the Convention, which had previously adopted on four occasions provisions for election of the executive by the Congress and had twice†¦show more content†¦The larger states would no longer control the population lead as their fellow states. Registration and supervision of a national election would be expensive and very time-consuming. In the 1800s, ballot machines were not available to determine the votes on a wide-scale usage. So, ballots had to be hand-counted. And where an election would rest in counting every ballot, it would very time-consuming. And who would be in place to count these votes? Enslaved blacks would almost certainly favor the candidate who promoted freedom. The issue of bribery of vote-counters was brought up in the convention, and any talk of a corrupt government was quickly hushed. With an Electoral College in place and guaranteed by our Twelfth Amendment, why should we replace a system that up until now, caused no problems? Why do critics continue to bombard the Electoral College with complaints of it being obsolete? Why do the majority of the population see it as an â€Å"unnecessary barrier to true democracy† (Kuroda)? On September 4th, 1787, an appointed committee proposed a new method for electing the president, which took account of the many points made earlier in the five month session. It created the Electoral College and assigned the states a number of electors equal to their House and Senator representation they had in Congress. Presidents were to serve 4-year terms and to be eligible for re-election. Because a 200-year-old system still exists today, opponents of theShow MoreRelatedWho Is Really Voting? The System Of The Electoral College?1220 Words   |  5 PagesWho is really voting? The system of the Electoral College has been around for over two centuries. This system provides a means for the president and vice presidential elections by way of state electors. According to the United States Constitution Article II Section One , â€Å"Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors , equal to the whole number of Senators and Rep resentatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no SenatorRead MoreSummary: How the Electoral College Works830 Words   |  3 PagesThe Electoral College Technically speaking, the citizens of the United States do not elect their president through a direct vote, but by electing electors pledged to vote for a candidate. Each state has a different numbers of electors. The Founding Fathers hoped that after a period of reasoned consideration, these electors would vote for the best candidate. Thus, technically the electors could subvert the popular will. The evolution of the Electoral College was a slow one. Today, under the winner-take-allRead MoreEssay on Electoral College1295 Words   |  6 Pages Electoral College (audience: people of the U.S.) You walk into the voting booth on the first Tuesday of November to cast your vote for who you think should be President. You take your ballot into the box believing, as most people do, that your vote will be counted along with the rest of the population. You do this because you believe it could be the deciding vote for the presidential race. Well, you are horribly mistaken. What you may not realize is that the Electoral College actually elects theRead MoreElectoral College Essay1455 Words   |  6 Pages1787, the Electoral College was originally created during the Constitutional Convention to help make a fair way for the president to be elected without giving too much power to either the national government or individual states. Over the years, the Electoral College has undergone a few changes in attempt to make it more fair, but there is still much debate about whether or not the Electoral College is the most effective way to elect a president. Some people believe that the Electora l College does anRead MoreElectoral College Function809 Words   |  4 PagesStructure and function of the Electoral College The Electoral College is a process that was enjoined in the constitution by America’s founding fathers such as Hamilton. Its primary purpose is to offer a compromise between the election of the president by a popular vote of competent citizens and determination of the president by a vote in Congress (Jost and Giroux 44). The second purpose for its formation was to be part of the organization of government that gave special authority to the smaller statesRead MoreVoting and the Electoral Collegue1046 Words   |  4 Pagesduty and the people who do not vote are selfish and ignorant to the institutions of liberty. For the millions of non-voting citizens they feel they have no obligation to vote, because voting does not change anything, especially if voting in a corrupt system. â€Å"If voting changed anything, theyd make it illegal.† (Emma Goldman). Many people that are not nearly as well educated as Emma Goldman share a similar belief when it comes to the idea of voting. On many occasions we encounter the multitude of peopleRead MoreThe Summer Of 1787 : The Men Who Invented The Constitution1517 Words   |  7 Pagesexplain the elector system in depth and display the Constitution. The novel also includes a section of further reading suggestions as well as an index. Summary: The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution invites the reader into the Constitutional Convention and presents a detailed view of the four-month struggle that led to the framework for our nation’s government. The novel shows this process as a grueling, and certainly tiresome event and highlights through direct quotes from multipleRead MoreThe Electoral College System Is Not Effective1767 Words   |  8 PagesI would change the Electoral College system. Like many other Americans, I feel that the Electoral College system is not effective. It caries a notion of the state versus the people, electors oversee a large part of the country and is change the answer to this issue? I believe that times have changed and we need to reform the electoral system all while not changing the constitution. The Constitution of the United States of America created a system called the Electoral College where it outlinesRead MorePresidential vs parliamentary systems Essay1238 Words   |  5 PagesPresidential versus parliamentary systems ILONA Mà RIA SZILà GYI Miklà ³s Zrà ­nyi National Defence University, Budapest, Hungary This article is a comparison of presidential and parliamentary systems. They are the two most popular types of democratic governments. They have common and dissimilar features. In both presidential and parliamentary systems the chief executive can be removed from office by the legislature but the way of it is different. Dissimilar feature is the election of the chiefRead MoreThe Electoral College Should Be Abolished2593 Words   |  11 Pagescitizens a right to vote, a privilege that many people claim we are lucky to have. In actuality, how democratic is our system overall? What many people dont realize or care to face, is we dont directly vote for our president. In 2000, the majority of us voted for a President who in the end was not determined the winner. There are many other corruptions in our current electoral system, including the underlying racist and sexist roots, voter inequality and other flaws that go against every true democratic