The Electoral College is one of the famous voting systems in the United States which was formulated, devised by the framers of the US constitution to generate a method of election that was desirable, feasible as well as consistent alongside with the republican form of government. This paper discusses in detail the Electoral College process examining some of the issues of concern.
The history of the Electoral College dates back to the Convention undertaken by the committee on the unfinished area which was spearheaded by David Brearley of the New Jersey. The David Brearley tasked force was in charge of the provision of an election system that will be able to select the most qualified president and the vice president. At this particular point, some factors spearhead the adoption of the Electoral College such as the concern over the separation of powers as well as the relationship between the Legislative and the Executive arms (Bennett 105-130).
Further, the adoption of the system was also projected by the balance of voters between the large and small states, overseen dangers of having a direct democracy as well as slavery. In this particular case, the Electoral College is made up of the selected electors whereby they are required to vote for the president and the vice president. The Electoral College is made up of as many as electors which are equal to the senators and representatives in the United States Congress. During the early times, the framers in the first placed disliked the idea of having the Congress electing the president as it was seen as a way of welcoming corruption, bargaining as well as the inept politics (Gregg and Institute 130-135).
Further, the direct election of the president was viewed as a deficit for the implementation of the balance and check system through the Executive and Legislative branches. Framers further had the reasoning that the appointment of the president through the application of the legislatures will make the candidates beholden to the state legislature which may result in the erosion of the Federal powers. Based on the constitution each of the states in the United States of America is required to appoint two electors automatically alongside other electors who are mainly based on the population size of the country. The Electoral College is structured in a manner whereby even the small state is in the position to produce three electors. Further, each of the electors in the college holds two voters whereby one of the votes is voted to the person from his state, and the other one voted to the person outside the state. During the time of the election the person who gains the most votes from the Electoral College becomes the president while the next most significant amount of electoral votes is declared the vice president of the US. Further, under the new provision of the 23rd amendment of the constitution, the District of Columbia has been given three votes and viewed as a state under the Electoral College (Peterson 39).
After the adoption of the Electoral College process, it was only able to host four elections whereby it was subjected to numerous changes from the year 1787. With the formation of the two opposing political parties each of these political party present two candidates whereby each of the political party manipulated their votes to make sure that the two candidates are elected from the same party as opposed to the initial formula which required that the vice president should be the one with the most significant votes which led to a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron burr. To handle such crisis constitution changes were undertaken popular known as the twelfth amendment which requires that an elector could cast one vote for the president as well as a separate vote the vice present. The further modification comprises of the twenty-third amendment which gave rights to the Columbia to vote despite it being a small state, beside other change have been undertaken on the laws of the state concerning the appointment electors. In the first place, the legislature chose the electors themselves while other appoints them through the direct popular vote while other adopted the hybrid methods. Currently, at the Electoral College through the legislature is required to appoint electors through fair and democratic methods. The presidential campaign and the party committees are required to present nomination of the electors to the election official.
Today in the society the Electoral College has face discussion both from the citizen as well as the top governmental officials. Current many arguments have been raise whereby by their proposal from the people that the all system should be dumped as it is seen as useless of the relic of the 18th-century white gentry privilege. Most of the concerns have been raised after the 2016 general elections whereby the Electoral College was the antiquated mechanism which is aimed towards the elimination of the favor direct national popular vote. The Electoral College of the United States has further being described as toxic which was generated to look into the affair of the political power of the slaveholders. Beside the Electoral College has also been viewed as a mechanism of ridiculous whereby the winner is selected not under the stipulated regulation but by the serendipity of the casino (Edwards 210-230).
The Electoral College has further been seen as bad sportsmanship whereby if you are lucky to hit the right number you become the president. Beside the system has also been depicted as a failed system to pinpoint down to the voter's preference of their favorite candidates alongside providing limited choices to the citizen whereby the candidates spend most of their time on the Electoral College voter rather than addressing the whole nation at larger. To the people of American society having the Electoral College, the decision has for a long time undermined the popular vote which has majorly been blamed for the system. The system has been associated with many shortcomings for example in the 1888 election one of the candidates won the popular vote, but on the other side, he lost the electoral vote. Indeed the Electoral College has been depicted as undemocratic which is just a burden to the people of the United States which was formulated to protect the slavery. There are different political actors that have been involved in the all process of the electoral process. In this particular point, the leading political actor to whole issues is the Legislatures as well as the Congress house. Despite the numerous efforts for the abolishment of the Electoral College the two top houses have not been moved in any way (Burgan 40-49).
For a long time in the society, the Electoral College in the United States has been viewed as one of the most display of the democratic deficit across the world. The democratic deficit of the Electoral College has been demonstrating by a quite good number of factors as illustrated below. The Electoral College has been considered undemocratic for example the system generates a chance for the loser of the popular vote from the American citizen to win the electoral vote. The case, whereby a presidential candidate's losses the famous and goes ahead to win electoral votes, have been witnessed for more than fifty-six times which has led to the generation of the hideous mess every time. For this has been seen for the recent election which was held in 2016 whereby president Donald did not win the popular vote but went ahead to win the electoral vote which made him declare the president of United States of America. During the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton emerged the winners of the popular vote but the Electoral College put Donald Trump in the office (Schumaker and Loomis 147-150).
Further also these cases have also been witnessed in the 2000 presidential elections whereby George W Bush was not in the position to win the popular vote but become the president because of the Electoral College votes. Further, the second reason which the system of Electoral College has been considered undemocratic is that of the distorts of the presidential campaign. What most of the presidential candidates have less focus to more than forty states alongside the District of Columbia in which they believe that they can win without the support of these states? The Electoral College has made it hard for these smaller states to get campaign visit as well as the television ads. Most of the campaign in the United States is majorly done in the main states such as New York, Texas and California which are considered to have the largest number of votes compared to other countries in the United States. Further the Electoral College is mostly favors of the conservative, Christians and white voters. Also, the Electoral College has interference with the presidential campaign by generating the extra grant weight towards the local requirements of the swing state. Also, different scholars in the world have given a different definition of the term democracy. According to the American system of the election, the word democracy has failured the meaning. Based on various studies that have been undertaken in the field of justice it is whereby true democracy requires all the votes to count in every election. Most of the people in the United States do not vote because they have the assumption that the Electoral College system has invalidated their votes whereby they no longer see the need to vote. This system has been recognized as the copy of the old system that has been used in the selection of the pope which should not be used in the United States.
Further, the Electoral College system of election has been seen to make the country to appear as a tyranny of the minority. For example for the pasted election which is fifty-seven five of the polls have failed. Based on different data that have been undertaken the election has failed more than two tyranny of the majority. For example, Clinton had gained more than three million more votes than his counterpart trump but was not able to win the Electoral College votes. The problems that have been encountered by the Electoral College is the taking away the rights of the majority of the people placing the power to the small number of people to decide.
Further, the EC face challenges from having the two party systems. Having the two major political parties makes the Electoral College to go down to the demands of the minority.
Further, it has also resulted in the problem of voter suppression, whereby more than forty states are not close in voting. In particular States for example if a person stays in Texas and places his vote to the democratic it seen as just wasting your vote. Also, democracy must be viewed like pregnancy which cannot be partial. Democracy based on data it is defined as the government of the people for the people by the people. In this regard, the ignorance of the votes of the people and depending on the Electoral College vote it can still be seen as the ignorance of the first democracy, and democracy can only be recognized if the value of the votes of the people is also taken into account. The adoption of the Electoral College system in the US can be termed as one of the undemocratic processes as it denies the direct power to the people votes which is much opposition to what democracy implies. Further, the Electoral College through the constitution is not keen for the electors to vote in line with the popular vote and very few states have the adaptation of this regulation that requires them to vote alongside the popular votes of the people. For a long time, the Electoral College has been an undemocratic institution that has interfered with the election since the time of Alexander Hamilton which up to know continues to make certain sates and votes more powerful than other.
The different solution can be applied to fix the Electoral College in the United States. The conditions in the nation are entirely different compared to those times of the founders of the Electoral College. In the currently society majority of the Americans who are going for the political seat have the power to undertake the campaigns from traveling from one state to the another or use other different means such as internet, mass print, television as well as radio. The Electoral College should be subjected to the constitutional amendments to switch straight to a more popular vote. Further another change that should be undertaken toward the Electoral College is having the insight towards the popular vote interstate compact. Under these proposals, the states should be given enough votes to the plurality winner of the popular presidential election without putting much consideration to the specific rules. Besides, another good way to handle the Electoral College is through the introduction of the democratic system whereby each of the states will be allowed to assign a certain number of the electors based on the popular vote in the country.
In conclusion, American for a long time has been viewed as one of the most democratic nations in the world. Many countries around the globe have had the desire to copy the US electoral system of election. The electoral system was adopted in the US during the times of the founding fathers to secure distribution of voter across the nation. Despite this many positive outcome of the Electoral College, it has been viewed as a tool that is being used by the political actors to undermine democracy in the United States. The Electoral College has been associated with a lot of challenges, including the suppression of the popular vote of the people. The citizen of the United States is not allowed to pick their favorite candidate rather a person is selected through the electoral process. In the wake of the 21st century, the Electoral College needs amendments to allow it to work within the democracy lines.
Work Cited
Bennett, Robert W. Taming the electoral college. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Law and Politics, 2010.
Burgan, Michael. The electoral college. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2010.
Edwards, George C. Why the electoral college is bad for America. New Haven: London, 2011.
Gregg, Gary L and Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Securing democracy : why we have an electoral college. Wilmington, Del: ISI Books, 2008.
Peterson, Josiah. The Electoral college : critical to our republic. New York: the King's College Press, 2017.
Schumaker, Paul and Burdett A Loomis. Choosing a president : the electoral college and beyond. New York: Chatham House Publishers, 2010.
